The First Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events
by goldie031
Summary: President Emerald is continuing the process of ending the Hunger Games; however, she recognizes that, in order to do so, she needs to supplant them with another, similar competition. The difference? In the new competition, nobody dies.
1. Ruby's New Competition

_Nine years after Garnet's Selection_

* * *

Ruby and her niece Violet were sitting in Ruby's office, discussing the final phases of what was commonly referred to as the Re-Districting, an attempt by the President and Violet to even out the poverty gap in Panem. Violet spearheaded of the process, though it had been carefully overseen by Ruby; as expected, it had taken five years and things seemed to be going well.

"It's never going to be perfect," Violet concluded her report to the president, "but the wage gap is much less dramatic between the poorer and richer Districts than before, the Districts are adapting to their new industries, and things are looking good for workforce consistency. There's enough money flow all around now, etc. Everything seems to be going well!"

"That's all very good. Would you say that the transition is complete?"

"Mostly, yes; I can hand it over to my sister to finish it off."

"Excellent. To change the subject.

"Over the past decade, Garnet and I have been preparing for an addition to our Games cycle; we believe that, just as Amethyst has done a very strong job in being the Head Gamemaker, we would like you to take on a similar position in this new event. Just like you did so well in developing the Selection from a foreign concept to a reality, I believe that you are just the person to bring this event to reality."

Violet smiled. Her actions during the Selection had payed off! "Of course. I'd absolutely love to!"

"Good. Allow me to share with you the gist of the event. It will be structured exactly like the Hunger Games are: Reaping, Chariot Rides, Training, Interviews, then Games, but with one major difference: nobody dies."

Violet's brow furrowed. "Nobody dies? Interesting."

"The key is in a selection of diction changes. The Reaping becomes the Drawing of Names. The tributes become the competitors. And the name will be… well, you see, I don't know exactly what the name will be yet."

"So what's the point of having this event if we already have the Hunger Games?"

"The goal is for this to eventually supplant the Hunger Games. So this event will have its Drawing of Names on January 25, while the Hunger Games will have its Reaping on July 25th. At some point, we'll switch it, and then we'll get rid of the Games all-together. However long it takes, we'll do it."

"And what is the structure of it, if there's no killing?"

"Well, that's up to you. I have my idea, but you could do challenge-based Games, you could do something like paintball, or you could (and I think should) change it year-to-year. Whatever you want!"

Violet paused to think. Much like the Selection, she really had the capacity to make her mark on Panem, but this took it to a whole new level. On the other hand, the potential for backlash at the beginning was high, and that could be dangerous for herself and her kids.

"I do expect this to be a work in progress; I'd like to have the first Games be the January before the 135th Games, which gives you just under a year. We'll announce it this coming October."

"That all sounds good. I'll take the job. But it needs a name."

The two women paused for a second. Neither seemed to have a good idea of what to call it. Finally, Ruby came up with something. "How about the Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events?"

Violet sighed. "That's such a mouthful."

"Do you have a better name?"

"I suppose we can always change it later…"

* * *

 **So here we go, the beginning of my third SYOT! I know this prologue is kind of vague, because I didn't want to reveal too much that could spoil the end of MMAM. That means that your characters that you submit might change between now and the end of MMAM, and I'm totally willing to work with you on those.**

 **The deadline will be somewhere around August 17** **th** **. I reserve the right for change the deadline between now and then, moving it up or back depending on my MMAM status. I'll be using a google form; you can find it on my profile. Feel free to PM me with questions. Have fun!**

 **-goldie031**


	2. The Press Conference

Ruby Emerald stood in her familiar position behind her podium, prepared to address the greater press. This was the third time she'd stood in front of the press to make a big announcement, once a year in the years that were multiples of five since the Fifth Quell. Each time, major changes came to the country she was so proud to run, and this time was no different.

One of the many differences between Ruby and her grandfather, the infamous President Snow, was the way she handled the press. President Snow never held press conferences, leaving the country in the dark as to what was happening in the government. On the other hand, Ruby enjoyed sharing with the country as much as she could regarding the happenings in the Captiol, and would call press conferences at least three or four times a year. But usually, those conferences were specifically for the seven or eight TV stations and magazines she trusted, like the First Street Press, the Romario Gray Show, and HGHQ. But when she called a press conference for any newspaper that wanted to attend, the country knew that things were getting serious.

"Good evening, Panem," said President Emerald, addressing the whole country through the assembled media. "Over the past decade of the modified Hunger Games, we have sensed a need for a new competition in Panem. One where the districts are proud of the people for whom they are rooting. One in which the contestants will be guaranteed to return home to their families. One in which children not under the Reaping Statutes have the opportunity to become Victors. And one in which the youth of our country can show off the best of themselves.

"Today, I am proud to introduce to you this competition, which will begin in three months' time: The Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events. In its format, these Events will mirror the Hunger Games, with some marked differences.

"On January 25th, one male and one female competitor between the ages of twelve and eighteen will be selected from each District and the Capitol via the Drawing of Names. Each child will have their name in the bowl five times. For this first year, they will be taken to the Capitol, and the pre-Events process will mirror that of the pre-Games process. Finally, the Events will begin, and at the end, they will all live, but a winner will be crowned. The District from which that winner comes will have the opportunity to host the Events the next year, though they are entitled to pass up on that opportunity.

"Each competitor will receive a small daily stipend from the Capitol for each day that they are in the Games, and a monthly stipend for the twelve months following. They may also be expected to mentor the next year's competitors depending on whether or not there is a Victor from their district. The winner of the Events will be considered a Victor on equal level with the Games Victors; they will live in Victor's Village and get all the privileges, but be expected to mentor every year as well.

"Each year, the structure of the events will be slightly different. For this year, there will be twenty-eight smaller competitions over the span of fourteen days. Based on the order of placement in each competition, the tributes will receive a certain amount of points. Afternoon competitions are worth double the morning ones, and placement in the morning competitions may affect the tribute's ability to perform well in the evening ones.

"More information about the Events will be forthcoming as they approach. I will take questions at this time."

"Will the Districts who have chosen to mix their Reaping Bowls since the Fifth Quell be allowed to do so for these Events?" asked a reporter from Three.

"No," Ruby answered. "A tribute out of the binary may elect to place their name in the male or female pool of names, but the bowls must be split."

"Are tr… competitors allowed to volunteer?"

"For this year, there may be no volunteers, though we may begin to allow them in the future."

"To clarify, are children under the Reaping Statutes eligible?"

"Not while they are under their respective Statute, but once it expires or is terminated, their names will be added to the pool."

A reporter from Two's main newspaper raised their hand. "Can a competitor who has competed in the Events volunteer for the Games?"

"No."

"So," continued that reporter, "what about tributes who have been training for the Games? It would be unfair for them to lose the chance to compete in the Games if their name is drawn at random."

Prepared to respond to this question, but admittedly hoping that she didn't have to, Ruby said, "Each District and the Capitol will be allowed to submit a list of ten children for each eligible reaping age whose names they would like to hold back from the pool. The Capitol will not ask questions, and we will remove those names. I should also mention that the slips for the Drawing of Names will be reviewed by the Games Fairness Council for this year, and that in the future, a separate Council may be created."

"If a competitor was born in one district, moved to another, but works in a third, in what district is that competitor eligible to have their name drawn?"

Ruby internally rolled her eyes at the overly specific question from Arax of Arax Asks, not that she was necessarily expecting anything different. "A competitor is eligible in their district of residence, even if they have moved around. Anything else?

"Excellent. If any more questions arise from anyone in Panem, feel free to write to my secretary and we will respond in the way we see fit. Thank you for your time, and have a good day."

* * *

 **I hope this chapter answers some of your questions about these Events! Obviously there's still a lot we don't know, especially because MMAM hasn't ended, but hopefully this has clued you in a bit. There's still plenty of time to submit, and you can check my profile for submission info; I have zero submissions with Two or Six as preferred district yet. Also, don't take the gender info into account too much; that's just there for statistical purposes.**

 **Feel free to PM me with questions. Happy submitting!**

 **-goldie031.**


	3. The Committee Meeting

"So, before we start, let me quickly go over the things that I'm looking for in the mentors," Ruby said to the group of people she'd assembled to help choose the mentors for the Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events. "I'm mostly interested in people who haven't been mentally scarred by either the Games or by mentoring for so long, but also those who weren't too bloodthirsty during their Games. We need a good balance, because the mentors in the Events are going to be more of companions than coaches. They are going to have some opportunities to work with their competitors before certain competitions, and guide them during training, but as a whole, we're looking for people who will get along with the tributes. We're not necessarily picking mentors unless we narrow it down to one or two for the district, but we're trying to weed out those who wouldn't be good. Most importantly, I'm looking for you all to be completely honest. I know I can be intimidating, but please, please be honest. OK?"

The members of the committee nodded. It was, admittedly small; its only members were Ruby, Elizah, and Garnet Emerald, Dania Klepper, Euodia Grove, and Bellona Terminus. Ruby selected all of them except for Dania because, while none of them had played in the Games, all of them were familiar with the personalities of all of the Victors. Dania was selected as an added helper because she knew all of the Selection girls, who were also eligible to mentor, and also because it was good to have an outside opinion on the potential mentors.

"Great. So we're going to start with the Capitol and work our way through.

"From the Capitol, we have two Victors and four Selection girls to work with. The Victors are Henderson Dellorte and Lavinia Julius, both of the 131st Games. Thoughts?"

Dania raised her hand. "I think they're going to be seen as a package deal, just like they are during the Games," she replied. "I mean, she volunteered to save Henderson because of his father's reaping statute, even though Henderson never knew his father!"

"But remember," Euodia chimed in, "Lavinia is known as the first Capitol Career. That's her reputation. If we're trying to avoid the bloodthirsty reputation, that might not be the best person to go with."

"Points taken," Ruby said. "Let's also remember the number of Capitol options we have versus, say, One or Two. For the time being, can we have the consensus that Henderson is a possibility, while Lavinia is not?" The committee nodded again. "Excellent. Now, the Selection girls are Lilith Russe, Jemimah Puddle, Lahainah Pele, and Varinia Jonet."

Elizah jerked her head up and locked eyes with Ruby; Garnet also looked up, clearly thinking the same thought. "Let's talk about Varinia later. I have my own potential issues with her."

"I'm not so sure about Jemimah," Bellona remarked. "She's just a bit nuts. And isn't Lahainah a stylist? That seems to me like a conflict of interest."

"What about Lilith?" asked Ruby. "Would she be good?"

Everyone kind of shrugged. "I don't think there's anything against her," Euodia suggested.

"Unless she feels awkward being around Garnet," Elizah pointed out.

"With everything else we've talked about, I don't think we really have a choice. So our Capitol mentors are Henderson Dellorte and Lilith Russe. All right. District One. They have ten living Victors and one living Selection girl. The Selection girls is Delilah Ainsley." Everyone nodded in approval. "Cool. So we like her. Now, let's run through the Victors. Sparkle Leilows, Victor of the 78th Games."

"I think she's a bit old for this," admitted Bellona. "I mean, she's what, 75 or so? I think she's pretty set in her ways."

"Did she ever really mentor, though? Like, it could be an advantage to have someone who's out of practice," pointed out Dania.

"But she's so old," Bellona emphasized again.

"So she's a maybe. Vane Kilen, Victor of the 90th Games."

"No!" everyone exclaimed.

"Loud and clear. Marvel Lux, victor of the 94th Games."

The room fell silent. It was a good minute before Bellona remarked, "I honestly can't remember who he is. Euodia, do you?"

"No. You're more likely to know the Career Victors, anyway."

Everyone thought for a little longer, until Ruby piped up again. "One thing to bear in mind. Marvel is 59, which is on the older side, but maybe him not being so well-known isn't a bad thing, especially with the goal of these Games. Anyway. Next up is Tyranny Bomber, Victor of the 100th Games."

Bellona raised her hand. "From what she's known for in her Games, and her reputation as a mentor, Tyranny would be fine. But, she is a Quell Victor. Quell Victors tend to have reputations of being very involved with the Games, especially in the Career districts, and I don't think that's what we want."

"Fair point. So we can rule out Tyranny. Next up, Trienda Orrenn, Victor of the 102nd Games."

"She hasn't mentored since Arieyn died," Bellona pointed out. "Not a thing she'd probably want to do."

"OK," said Ruby. "Next… Effervescence Capek, Victor of the 113th Games."

"Nope," everyone replied again.

"Jasper Hematite, Victor of the 117th Games."

"I like Jasper! He seems so sweet," Dania said.

"But he has a daughter of Reaping age," Bellona noted. "She's 16. Not to mention that she's in contention for the female spot in two years. So I think we want to consider leaving him out in the event that she gets Reaped, or that he's supporting her Career journey."

"So he's a maybe," Ruby concluded. "Next up. Lavender Aroma, Victor of the 125th Games."

Euodia remarked, "If Tyranny can't mentor because she's a Quell Victor, how much so should we leave Lavender out, considering how bloodthirsty that little girl was during her Games."

"Correct. Next. Steven Sapir, Victor of the 129th Games."

"Isn't he the one who rode Nemo Watterson's coattails to Victory without getting any kills or getting any district mad at him?" asked Dania.

"I think so," Euodia replied.

"So he should be fine," Dania concluded. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"And lastly, Jasmine Estrella of the 133rd Games."

"She did the same thing with Hannibal Lector," Elizah pointed out.

"Except she wasn't smart enough to realize she was doing it," added Bellona snarkily. "She was potentially the ditziest tribute One's had in years, but manage to charm Hannibal, which is why he chose to work with her over our female."

"So also an option. All right. Our options for District One are Delilah Ainsley and Jasmine Estrella for the girls, and Marvel Lux, Jasper Hematite, and Steven Sapir for the boys."

"All right. District Two has fourteen living Victors and two Selection girls. The Selection girls first. They are Bellona Terminus and Janari Lovarre. Thoughts?"

Bellona piped up. "I am going to rule myself out because I'm a Gamemaker. In terms of Janari, she's a relative to a Victor we're ruling out because of Quell involvement, that being Carissa. So I don't know if she's the best person to have."

"But, on the other hand, Janari is such a sweet girl. I really think that she'd be someone who could easily connect with her girl."

Ruby interjected, "Because we have so many people to go through, let's set up Janari as a maybe. All right. I want to immediately rule out some Two Victors, unless any of you object. Those are…" Ruby checked her notes again, "Mesa Amura, Victor of the 92nd Games, Smash and Crash Hatch, Victors of the 100th Games, Carissa Lovarre, Victor of the 125th Games, and Deidra and Demetrius Sene, Victors of the 127th Games."

At the mention of the last names, everybody gave very strong head nods. "Yeah, I agree with that," Bellona said, "especially with the Sene twins. I just can't shake the image of the way they tortured that girl from Seven out of my head. What was her name again? Petunia? Posy?"

"Pansy," corrected Euodia bitterly. "Pansy Lafe."

"Let's focus," Ruby said, regaining control of the room. "Now that I'm looking at the list again, do we also want to rule out Hannibal Lector of the 133rd Games?" The committee nodded again. "Great. Now we can go through the rest of them a bit more slowly. Mason Lits, Victor of the 79th Games."

"He's also on the older end, isn't he?" asked Elizah. "74, right?"

"Yeah," Bellona said. "Not in the best position to be mentoring. Same with his wife, Delphine Pix-Lits, who won the 83rd Games, and Zareth Cullen, who won the 87th Games. I'd rule them all out due to age."

"Is anyone opposed to that?" asked Ruby. "Great. Next is Hannibal Oriot, Victor of the 105th Games."

Euodia nodded in approval. "He's a tame Victor as far as Two is concerned." Nobody else had any reason to argue with that.

"Ares Lits," Ruby introduced next, "Victor of the 108th Games."

"Bellona," asked Dania, "how many kills did he have in his Games?"

"Five or six, I think? I'm not sure."

"So that's probably a no."

"All right… Orion Terminus, Victor of the 114th Games."

Bellona shook her head. "My brother is too similar to my grandmother. Bad idea."

"And finally, Arabelle Pick, Victor of the 123rd Games."

Everyone smiled. "Arabelle has such a good reputation for a Career Victor," Elizah pointed out. "She's really grown out of her Games image, not that that image was so harsh in the first place. I really enjoyed getting to know her through Victor events as Garnet's wife, and I think she'd be really good."

"Cool! Our options… well, I guess our mentors by default for District Two are Arabelle Pick and Hannibal Oriot. Now, District Three. Three has five living Victors and one Selection girl. The Selection girl is Honey Voltas."

Everyone looked around, kinda unsure what they thought. "I think she'd be fine," Euodia offered. "Honey's just a very reserved person."

For the first time, Garnet spoke up. "I think Honey might have a challenging time, and may get distracted by certain things in the Captiol."

Ruby picked up on where Garnet was going and said, "I do think we should rule Honey out as well. Fair?" Nobody disagreed. "OK. On to the Victors. Jones Javan, Victor of the 106th Games."

"Jones is Three's only living Victor who was actually belligerent during his Games," Dania said. "He actually killed. Nobody else from Three did that. So I'd say no."

"Agreed," chorused the rest of the group.

"OK, next. Linus Packard, Victor of the 118th Games."

Euodia offered, "I've heard that Linus isn't the best Games mentor, so I don't know if she's the kind of person we want involved with this either."

"Fine. Next, Byte Harper, Victor of the 122nd Games."

Dania smiled. "I've met Byte before. She's such a sweetheart and really good with kids; she'd be perfect for this kind of thing."

"Good. Edison Rakesh, Victor of the 126th Games."

"Edison hasn't mentored yet in Three," Bellona remarked, "so this might be a good place for him to start."

"Lastly, Giovano Crick, Victor of the 130th Games."

Euodia shook her head. "He and Watson were too smart in the Arena for their own good. I don't think having him in the Games is a good idea because of some of the traps and stuff they were able to make."

Ruby checked her notes again. "So, by default again, our mentors from Three are Byte Harper and Edison Rakesh. All right. District Four has three Selection girls and six living Victors. Let's do the Selection girls first. Pacifica Corwin."

"Nope!" everyone exclaimed.

"Thyra Sereno."

Bellona shook her head. "Thyra's a trainer in Four. Not to the same degree Bonnie Clearwater is, but she's still deeply involved in the Career system. I'd say that having either of those two mentor is a bad idea."

"Fair. All right. Now on to the Victors. From the 89th Games, Tace Arroyo. Is there also an age concern there?"

"Yeah," admitted Elizah. "Sixty-three isn't that old, but might be a little too old for our purposes."

"Fine. Next. Amphetrite Lyxx, Victor of the 116th Games."

Bellona cringed a little bit. "Compared to some other Careers, she's not horrible, but she does have the reputation of being a bit of a seductress. Solid maybe, I'd say."

"So Amphetrite is a maybe. Now, Zander Neptune, Victor of the 124th Games."

Euodia shrugged. "Zander's fine. He wasn't crazy belligerent during his Games, and I think he'll be good enough, especially because Nemo is out of the question."

"Next. Calytrix Porcher, Victor of the 126th Games."

"Nope!"

"OK, that was unanimous. Nemo Watterson, Victor of the 129th Games."

"Nope!"

"Loud and clear. Lastly, Ariel Marsh, Victor of the 134th Games."

The committee thought for a moment. "Ariel has the image of being a protector after everything with Nissan last year," offered Euodia. "While she has the skills of a Career, I think her image in Panem cancels that out and that she'll be great."

"Awesome. So our options for Four are Ariel Marsh and Amphetrite Lyxx for the girls, and Zander Neptune for the boys. We're moving along well! Next is District Five, who have four Selection girls and five living Victors, sort of. We'll get there. I think the best way to do this would be to go through a bunch of the options at a time, and you'll speak up if you have any objections before we move on. Let's go through the living Selection girls first. We have Erin Mochurn-Fuego, Pandora Zachery, Khara Imperium Nightingale, and Phoebe Nightingale. Thoughts?"

"I'm hesitant on Erin. She was so young during the Selection, after all," pointed out Elizah. "I don't think any of the younger Selection girls should mentor because I don't think that they were cognizant of what they were doing to get or not get Garnet's attention. That's the kind of thing an older Selection girl would be able to do that the younger one's can't, which would help the Events competitors create an image."

"Anybody have any objections to what Elizah said? Nope? Good. Now onto the male living Victors: Ali Samara Nightingale, Victor of the 96th Games, and Watson Holter, Victor of the 130th Games."

"My only concern," Bellona said, "is if Phoebe or Khara ends up mentoring with Ali. I think Ali is the best choice for the males, not that Watson would be bad, but in Two, we try our best to have relatives not mentor together because it can sometimes be awkward for the tributes. Or competitors. Whatever you want to call them."

"So we'll make that request to Five. Now for the living female Victors: Lyla Orit, Victor of the 77th Games, Brinna Ride, Victor of the 103rd Games, and Alana Wright, Victor of the 107th Games."

"Lyla's a bit old, but the other two are fine," Euodia said. Nobody disagreed.

"Cool. Now, there's one other person we have to talk about, and that's Astrid Evans, who's Five's living non-Victor from the Fourth Quell. Can I assume that we're not including her because Quell?"

"Yeah," said Bellona, "and because they have plenty of other options."

"Great. So our options for Five are Pandora Zachery, Khara Imperium Nightingale, Phoebe Nightingale, Lyla Orit, Brinna Ride, and Alana Wright for the girls, and Watson Holter and Ali Samara Nightingale for the boys. On to District Six! They have one Selection girl and four living Victors. Their Selection girl is Danira Muntaner. Thoughts?"

"Danira's fine. A bit talkative, but good," said Euodia.

"Yeah, I'd agree," said Elizah. "Maybe not a first choice, but definitely someone that can be in the mix."

"Great. Now, Six's Victors. Let's go through them all in one group. They have Orris Engine, Victor of the 82nd Games, Sydnee Leigh, Victor of the 88th Games, Gigi Jefferson, Victor of the 97th Games, and Alex McGhee, Victor of the 120th Games."

Dania began. "I've heard from people from Six that Alex McGhee is absolutely horrendous. Terrible mentor, disliked by the district, all that jazz. Not someone we necessarily want involved with something we want people to like."

"The only issue," responded Euodia, "is that he's our only male Victor from Six. If possible, I always think it's better to have someone of the same gender as the competitor mentor them."

"But he's bad."

Ruby interjected, "Let's see if we can settle on two other mentors, and we'll say that Alex is, like, the least bad option to add in. Do you have any opposition to any other mentors?"

"Gigi is totally oblivious," Bellona said bluntly. "There's no chance that she'll be able to succeed. And I think Orris is borderline too old, but we have Danira and Sydnee to work with. Plus, there is the whole backstabbing and alliance mess.

"True. So, I think we'll leave it up to the Six mentors how to handle the Alex situation, but we know that there are two trustworthy Six mentors, Danira Muntaner and Sydnee Leigh, with Alex as a backup option. Let's move on. District Seven has five living Victors and three Selection girls. Let's start with the Selection girls, who are Elizah Klepper, Euodia Grove, and Nadina Spencer."

Elizah and Euodia locked eyes. "The two of us can't do it, obviously," smiled Elizah. "I think Nadina would be fine, but not necessarily super sweet and caring. I don't think if that's necessarily her style."

"That's fine, if we can't find other people," Ruby offered. "OK. Now, their Victors. Reth Rumbrum, Victor of the 91st Games, Peter Rhett, Victor of the 104th Games, Fir Remington, Victor of the 110th Games, Alvin Carthy, Victor of the 121st Games, and Ivey Hunterson, Victor of the 132nd Games."

Euodia grimaced. "There's not really a great girl in the mix. Fir was a very strong competitor with three fairly gruesome kills, and Ivey's reputation is of being the first Outer District Career, and so far, really the only one. Reth is a fine male Victor, as is Alvin (who is admittedly more of a pushover), but I wouldn't recommend using Peter either. Would you agree, Elizah?"

"Yes. Euodia's got it basically on the nose."

"Excellent. So by that, our best options for the Seven mentors are Nadina Spencer for the girls, and Alvin Carthy and Reth Rumbrum for the boys. District Eight next! They have two living Victors and one Selection girl. We can just go through them all together in one group. Their Selection girl is Singer Brocade, and their Victors are Neelee Hem of the 98th Games and Rose Web of the 111th Games."

"Neelee had a few strangling kills, but she's pretty well-adjusted, right?" asked Euodia.

"That's the feel I get with Neelee," Elizah said. "Rose is also really sweet; while Singer would be fine, I think she's at a stage in her career where leaving for this length of time would be kind of rough for her. Plus, we have two."

"That's fine with me. Our Eight mentors, then, will be Neelee Hem and Rose Web. Moving on to District Nine. They have three Selection girls and five living Victors. First, the Selection girls: Cayman Rye, Melvina Crusoe, and Dania Klepper."

Dania raised her hand. "As I'm on the panel, I'm going to remove myself from consideration here. I don't think Melvina would be the best bet because of the way things panned out in the Selection house, and Cayman got herself pretty involved as well. So, overall, let's leave the Selection girls from Nine out."

"Cool. To move on. The Victors from Nine are Durum Bundon of the 86th Games, Sarah Sheaf of the 95th Games, Sophie Sheaf of the 99th Games, Riker Mannison of the 109th Games, and Irabella Miller of the 128th Games."

Dania spoke up again. "I'd be comfortable with any of them mentoring other than Durum, who is just a horrible, useless mentor. Everyone who's had him has said that."

"I've heard that too," Euodia added.

"So we can leave him out. That means our Nine options are Riker Mannison for the boys, and Sarah Sheaf, Sophie Sheaf, and Irabella Miller for the girls." Ruby took a few more notes, then a deep breath. "OK. Moving on to Ten. They have one Selection girl, Lennox Silverson-Smith, and five living Victors, Zolt MacEnroe, Victor of the 80th Games, Mosule Rose, Victor of the 81st Games, Hawk Hawkins, Victor of the 93rd Games, Bessie Heifer, Victor of the 101st Games, and Michelle Cabello, Victor of the 119th Games."

"Hawk's a bad idea. He's still a bit of an alcoholic, and though it's gotten better, it got pretty bad at his peak. Also, remember that he has a strong temper. Mosule's also not the nicest, though he's been better in his last few years as mayor," Elizah said. "But, the three female Victors are fine. If we have three female Victors, I don't think we also need Lennox. She's great, but she doesn't have mentoring experience like the Victors do."

"We have leeway in Ten," Ruby said, "so we don't really need Lennox. That makes our preferred options from Ten Zolt MacEnroe, Bessie Heifer, and Michelle Cabello. Awesome! District Eleven has four living Victors and two Selection girls, and also one other weird option. The Selection girls are Rain Peterson and Maddison Harper. Is this a too young issue as well? Yep? OK. The Victors are Quiinn Jones from the 100th Games, Skylar Lyman from the 112th Games, Beckia Hidalgo from the 115th Games, and Ivie Mark from the 132nd Games."

Euodia sighed. "This is where the Quell rule is weird for me, because Quiinn is really such a perfect mentor in so many ways. Is there a way we can make an exception for him, especially because he's Eleven's only male mentor?"

"All the girls are great," Dania added in. "Beckia is really good with connecting to her tributes, and Ivie is just so sweet. Skylar is good as well."

"Maybe we can say that, because Quiinn is the only mentor of his gender, he'll mentor even though he's in the Quell?" suggested Elizah.

"I'll see what I can do," Ruby said, "but I'm fine with not ruling out Quiinn by Quell. Now, the other decision that needs to be made is what to do with Rue. She is a mentor option, but doesn't really have a district."

"I'm OK with her being there," said Bellona, "but maybe she's the general backup mentor for both districts."

"All right! So our options for Eleven are Quiinn Jones if I can swing it for the boys, and Skylar Lyman, Beckia Hidalgo, and Ivie Mark for the girls, with Rue McClellan as a backup. Now, District Twleve. They have four Selection girls and four living Victors. The Selection girls are Brietta Westwood, Douria Hovello, Millicent Jones, and Brooklyn Cherry Westwood."

Elizah said, "All of them are too young except maybe Brietta, but she was really young still during her time in the Selection. I'm hesitant to include her even because she is so young."

"So we can hold off on Brietta until we see how the other mentors stack out. Now, the Victors are Damien O'Donnel from the 76th Games, Lilac Laurel from the 84th Games, Delilah Laurel from the 85th Games, and Asha Meye from the 128th Games."

"No problems there," Bellona said frankly. "I mean, Damien might be a bit old, or a lot old, but he's a good mentor, and he's the only male. I'd prefer not to use him if possible. And yeah, probably not Rue here either; we have enough mentors."

"So, all of the mentor options from Twelve are good. Now, the last district is Thirteen. They have one Victor, Nissan Triska from the 134th Games."

"I have no objection to him mentoring, but I think he needs support," Euodia said. "He's still only twelve, right? And a first-time mentor at that young?"

"Yeah," confirmed Elizah. "Maybe we have one of the girls from Five help him out? There are like a gazillion female Five mentor options."

"We can do that," said Ruby. "I'll have Five make that decision." Ruby referred to her notes one more time. "This seems really good to me! Thank you all for your help with this; I'm very excited to see these Events go! Thank you all for your support through this process."

Cordial words were exchanged all around, and the meeting came to a close.

* * *

 **So, I hope this chapter gives you guys an idea of the Victors who are alive in this universe! I used this as a way to do some worldbuilding, and to show some of the things that have been happening since MMAM. Maybe the chapter was a bit boring, but whatever. I'm really enjoying getting to structure these events, and I'm thrilled to bring them to life!**

 **The final deadline for this story will be September 10. Submissions will still be unlimited. I'm not sure when I'm going to publish it because college is a bit crazy, but there ya go.**

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I can't wait to see you soon!**

 **-goldie031**


	4. The Mentors, Part 1

_Early November, 134_

* * *

"Hey, Vinnie, you got a letter from President Emerald!" called Henderson Dellorte from the living room as he was going through the mail.

"How do you know it's from her?" asked Lavinia, his wife, coming into the living room holding a mimosa, her favorite drink.

"It's in a purple envelope with the seal of the Capitol on the back."

"That's a good reason."

Henderson waited until Lavinia was looking over his shoulder, then stole a kiss before sliding his finger under the seal and popping open the envelope. "Mind if I read it aloud?" asked Henderson.

"Sure."

"Dear Lavinia," read Henderson. "As you know, we are preparing to introduce a new competition into the world of Panem called the Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events. These Events are of the utmost importance to our country's future. Consequently, all potential mentors were screened and evaluated prior to the Games. As the oldest living Victor of your district, we have provided you with a list of approved mentors, which may include some of the women who participated in the Selection in addition to the Victors from your district.

"If you have any questions about the inclusion or exclusion of a Victor or Selection participant in particular, or questions about the Events in general, please feel free to reach out to President Emerald, but we likely will not make any changes.

"Thank you for your understanding, and for the hard work you will do on these Events in the coming weeks and months.

"Yours,

"President Ruby Emerald. And she signed it with quite a flourish."

Lavinia took the papers out of Henderson's hand and scanned the letter herself. "I find it funny that I'm the oldest living Victor from the Capitol at the ripe old age of 22," Lavinia smiled. "Anyway, let's see the list of approved mentors." Lavinia turned to the second piece of paper included in the envelope. "Hmm. The only approved mentors for our district are you and Lilith Russe."

"Who's Lilith?"

"She's the Selection girl whose parents are the Games doctors, remember?"

"Oh, right. Why would they pick her over you?"

Lavinia thought for a moment. "I don't completely know. Maybe it's because I'm a Career?"

"That's probably it," nodded Henderson. "I guess they're trying to distance the Events from the Games by not endorsing the Career system."

"But how does that work on One or Two?"

"I don't know. Are you gonna fight it? It seems a bit insulting to me that Ruby picked a Selection girl over a full-fledged Victor."

"I don't think it's worth fighting it," Lavinia admitted. "You'll do great, and I'm sure Lilith is well-versed enough with the Games that mentoring the Events won't be a problem for her. Maybe I'll ask Lilith if I can be there to supervise? We'll see."

Henderson and Lavinia shared another kiss. "Do you like the idea of the Events?" Henderson asked.

"I mean, it's either going to work well or very poorly. I'm not sure if the Capitol crowds are going to respond to something without death. But I'm… being a mentor is much harder than being just a casual viewer of the Games. I feel like I take each death more personally, and that they're so much more real. Imagine getting to mentor kids who all get to come home."

"That would be nice, I guess."

* * *

Lavender Aroma was quite excited for the Victors' meeting. Sparkle Leilows, One's oldest living Victor, usually called one about once a month, to check in with trainers about their trainees, get the Victors' opinions on volunteers, and just generally check-in with everyone's well-being. Today's meeting, however, was not the planned monthly meeting; Sparkle had called it two days prior as a result of some correspondence from the President. Though she'd clarified in her correspondence that it most directly applied to five of the Victors, she still wanted everyone's input.

As she walked down Victors Lane, she found herself walking in step with Jasmine Estrella, the Victor in One closest to her in age. Despite winning eight years after Lavender, Jasmine was only one year younger, and the two had become pretty close friends in the year and three months or so since the 133rd Games had ended.

"What do you think the meeting is about?" Jasmine asked Lavender.

"I have a hunch that it relates to the Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events," replied the smarter of the two. "Or maybe an emergency meeting regarding a particular trainee?"

"Sure. I'd buy it."

The two young ladies made their way to the Victors' conference room inside the Justice Building. They arrived at a perfect time, not too early but also not the last ones to arrive. The seats at the round table at the Victors' meetings were organized by year of Games, so Jasmine, who won the most recent Games, took her seat next to Sparkle, who won the least recent ones; Lavender sat two seats down from Jasmine.

After about twenty minutes, everyone had arrived. Sparkle allowed some time for the Victors to schmooze, then officially called the meeting to order.

"So, I've called this meeting because I received some correspondence from President Emerald that I need to share. I'm not going to read the letter to you, but in a nutshell, President Emerald has pre-selected our mentor options for the Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events. Now, whether that is or isn't a good thing is not my concern at this point, but I wanted to take this time to go over with you the options to decide as a group what we're going to do.

"Ruby has only approved four Victors to mentor: Jasmine for the girls," Sparkle motioned to Jasmine, "and Marvel, Jasper, and Steven for the boys. She also said that Delilah Ainsley, one of ladies from Garnet's Selection, is an approved mentor, but that she has not reached out to Delilah and that it is my prerogative, as One's oldest living Victor, to reach out to her and offer her the position of mentor. I'll open the floor up for discussion at this time."

Jasmine said, "I would personally feel kind of insulted if we went with Delilah over me. I know that I'm a young Victor, but I still think that a Victor has cred over a Selection girl nonetheless."

"My question," offered Tyranny, "is why President Emerald gave her to us as a mentor option in the first place. There was clearly a reason; Ruby isn't the kind of person to make a decision without a clear reason behind it."

The group fell silent. "Maybe Ruby had all of the Selection girls as options," suggested Trienda, "that they went through just like the Victors. If the intention is not to go with people who have a reputation for being too bloodthirsty during the Games or too involved with them after their Games, thereby distancing the Games from the Events, some districts might not have enough mentors for the way they like to mentor. The Selection girls are the closest people who have gone through this process, so they're good backup options."

"Good point," Jasmine said, "but Delilah doesn't have mentoring experience. Not that I do either, really," she clarified, "but I… I don't know. It would just bother me."

"I hear you, Jasmine," Sparkle comforted. "I definitely see where you're coming from."

"But I think," Jasper pointed out, "that Delilah does have one thing that Jasmine does, and that's life experience. Jasmine hasn't even turned twenty yet! I think having someone older to help her navigate the Events would be helpful."

"But none of us know what the Events are going to be like, and Delilah has never mentored," responded Capek. "If anyone would be useful to help Jasmine, it would be a more experienced female, but I guess that's not an option."

A heated debate followed. Sparkle was less able to control the meetings than some of the former Victors, but eventually brought everyone back together by giving Jasmine the option to make the call. "Do you feel that you want help?" she asked Jasmine.

All of the attention in the room turned to Jasmine, who took a deep breath. "I know that I'm young, and that I've never mentored before, and that I can be a bit of a ditz. And help would be useful. But, in a year where I presume everyone will be flying by the seat of their pants because of how new the Events are, having someone with zero mentoring experience like Delilah would probably be less helpful. At least last year I got to watch Tyranny mentor and get a sense of how this might work. Maybe we can ask Ruby if someone can be there to support me even if they're not the actual mentor?"

Sparkle took a note. "That is certainly a possibility. I will reach out to the president and see what we can do. So, as we only have one female mentor, I think it's best to only have one male mentor. It's between Jasper, Marvel, and Steven. Do any of you three have a preference?"

"I actually think it would be best for Steven to do it," offered Jasper, "and here's why. Steven and Jasmine are both pretty young, and I'm pretty sure they've got a long time ahead of them in this whole life thing. I think that, if we designate them as our Events mentors now, the two can really hone their skills together and be a killer duo. Nothing intended there."

Steven and Jasmine gave each other a friendly smile. "I'm down for that," Steven proclaimed. "Jasmine?"

"Fine with me."

Sparkle smiled and made a note. "That sounds like a great idea for now. I also think we can use the Events as a future training ground for young Victors, and as neither of you has been a full-fledged mentor yet, this would be a great test in that regard. So I'm going to ask Jasper and/or Marvel to go to the Capitol with you as your mentor mentors. You two can work that out between yourselves.

"As we get closer to the Events and we get more information as to the role of the mentors, I'll relay that information to you. We'll hopefully have time to discuss strategies as a group of Victors before the Events really kick off. Thank you all for coming, and if anyone has questions, feel free to reach out. I now declare this meeting adjourned."

* * *

"So I asked Ruby why she ruled us out," Delphine revealed to her husband, Mason, as she was setting up for the dinner they were hosting that night.

"And what did she say?"

"There was concern about our age," answered Delphine. "I think Ruby is going for a young vibe with the mentors, so nobody who is as old as us if possible. Do you think that's fair?"

"Haven't decided yet," Mason replied. "Who are we having over tonight again?"

Delphine sighed. Maybe it was a good thing that her husband wasn't mentoring due to age; his memory wasn't what it was even ten years prior, which was why she'd decided to take his spot on the Victors' Council. "We're having Arabelle Pick and Hannibal Oriot, the people Ruby told us had to mentor, so that we can discuss our plans for the events."

"Right, right."

"Have you heard anything about what the other districts are doing with their mentors?" asked Ares, Mason and Delphine's son, taking a sip of the mimosa he was sipping while sitting at the island in the kitchen. As he was asexual, not to mention that he was genderfluid, Ares had never married; because of the relatively small number of houses in Victors' Village, he still lived at home with his parents. Unlike most people of his age, though, Ares didn't mind; living with his parents meant that he got a lot of information about what was going on in the other districts.

"It depends on the district and which Victors were approved. One, for example, had two relatively young Victors approved and two older ones, so they've decided to use the Events as a training ground, of sorts, for their mentors, and are having Jasmine and Steven mentored by Marvel Lux and Jasper. The Capitol, on the other hand, only had one of their two Victors approved, so Ruby is having Lilith Russe from Garnet's Selection mentor alongside Henderson. I also know Lavinia is in the process of convincing Ruby to let her come along and supervise Lilith, but I'm not sure if she'll succeed because she hasn't gained that Victor trust that I have, if you know what I mean."

"The one that got you on the Council instead of Dad?"

"Yep."

The two fell silent. Delphine busied herself putting the finishing touches on her coq au vin.

"What are the other districts thinking about this Events thing?"

"It's varied. The really rebellious districts are super wary of it, the Career districts are nervous about it taking away trainees, and the middle districts don't really have an opinion yet. I don't think there's any district that really likes it."

"Could it take the place of the Games?"

"It's possible. It could be dangerous if it did, mostly for our district and the Capitol. But it is possible."

(line break)

"So what do you think should be our strategy?" Edison Rakesh asked Byte Harper as the two sat down for coffee with Giovano Crick at her kitchen table. Neither Edison nor Byte knew exactly why Giovano was there, but as they weren't discussing anything important, they weren't kicking him out just yet. "Should we really help them out, like be super involved? Or do we let them be themselves and go?"

"I don't know," Byte said, carefully taking another sip. "This feels to me like something we're not really going to be able to figure out until we get there. I don't even know what to mentor them about."

"Do you not think they're going to need a strategy?"

"I think it depends on exactly what we're dealing with. Like, it's possible that every tribute… competitor will be in complete control of their own fate. In the Games, that's not a thing. You can be the best tribute from Two and get screwed over by the Arena or some flukey Outer District tribute. If they are, we have to approach things differently than if they have to interact with another tribute."

Edison shook his head. "I personally doubt that the Gamemakers will have a competition where everyone is completely in control of their own fate. That just doesn't seem realistic to me. It's more fun when the tributes interact. Competitors, I guess. Sorry."

"The change in vernacular is very weird for me too. But yeah. I agree with you. I think that there's either going to be something where the tributes are interacting with each other or where the Capitolites have a say in what's happening."

"It's possible," Giovano interjected, "that the Capitol will avoid having tributes interact this year because they want to make sure to distance the Events from the Games. By making everyone in total control of their own fate, they certainly accomplish that goal."

"Interesting," nodded Byte. "That's a cool way to look at it."

"Would you want to be involved with the Events?" Edison asked his younger counterpart.

"I haven't decided yet. There's something that's very scary to me about being the first to do something like this. I think I would rather watch someone else do it first and see how they approach mentoring and then do it by myself in a different year."

"Unless the Gamemakers change it up every year as well," Edison mused. "I mean, there are only so many different formats that the Hunger Games can use because the Capitol is entertained by the whole kids killing other kids thing. But there are so many more possibilities with the Events. It's certainly likely that mentoring for one year's Events will not be even close to useful the next year."

"That's weird to think about," Byte said. "Honestly, I'm at this point perfectly happy to just think about this year and deal with everything else later on. And I think we should wait to form a strategy until we have more information from the Capitol. That seems intelligent to me." She turned to look at Giovano. "I'm sorry, buddy, but I want to talk with Edison alone for a bit. Maybe see if Linus needs help with something he's working on?"

"OK, fine," groaned Giovano. He had a feeling that things were about to get exciting and hoped he'd hear about it later on from Edison. He put his cup in the sink and headed out.

"What's this I hear about you dating Bit?" asked Byte abruptly.

"B-b-bit?" stammered Edison awkwardly. "Who's Bit?" he lied.

Byte gave him a glare. Now she was fully in protective older sister mode. "My sister."

* * *

Ariel was resting in her house in Victor's Village when she heard a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" she called to whoever else was in the house, then slid on her favorite fluffy slippers and went to open the door.

"Are you ready for our monthly walk?" asked Tace.

"Yep. Let me go put on real shoes."

When Zander had won his Games, he'd had some real trouble adjusting, so Tace had decided to take him on regular walks to help check in. Ariel was a bit better-adjusted, so she didn't need quite as much support from Tace, but she still enjoyed spending time with him.

"Where are we going today?"

"I'm thinking down to the beach," replied Tace. The two set off on their way to one of the prettiest areas in Four, the beach right behind Victor's Village.

"So how are you feeling?"

"I'm pretty good," Ariel said. "I think what's helping me is that I stayed out of most of the fighting during the Games because Nissan and I kept moving, so I'm not feeling too PTSD-ish."

"That's good."

"Yeah."

"And you haven't watched back your Games at all, right?"

"Correct."

"Good. That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

The two continued with small talk for a little while longer until Ariel thought that something else might be going on. "Is there something else you wanted to talk about?"

"Yes, actually. I got some information from President Emerald that I wanted to pass on to you in private before I go back to the rest of the Victors later this week. All of the potential mentors were screened by a committee, and the only approved Victors from Four are you, Amphetrite, and Zander. Originally, I was thinking that we wouldn't have you mentor, because you're so fresh off of a win."

"That would make sense," Ariel said.

"But, then I talked with Sparkle Leilows, One's oldest living Victor, and she said that they were using the Events as a training ground for their younger mentors who were approved by Ruby. I realized that mentoring for the Events won't the same kind of mentoring you'd have for the Games; Games mentoring is a lot more physically and emotionally taxing. So I thought about it and came up with a few options for you.

"The first is for you not to mentor at all. The second option is for you to mentor under Amphetrite, kind of like what they're doing in One with their young Victors who are mentoring for the Events. She can help you through the process of mentoring and all of that stuff. The third option is for you to go for it yourself without being formally under Amphetrite's oversight. As she's also an approved mentor she'll probably go to the Capitol anyway. What do you think?"

"Hmm. Who's the approved male mentor?"

"Zander."

"Do you not think Zander could mentor me?"

"I mean, he'll have his own tribute." Tace sensed that there was something bigger happening. "Are you concerned about something with Amphetrite?"

Ariel blushed. "She kinda makes me uncomfortable," she admitted. "I dunno. She was always someone who was intimidating to me because… well… her persona is… it feels very much like something that…"

"She plays the sex card," Tace said frankly.

"Exactly. And I'm not even an adult yet."

Tace nodded. "I can understand that. I do hope that you'll become more comfortable around Amphetrite as you get older and spend more time together. For now, though, I'm OK with you going with Zander. I heard from Delphine that she was ruled out by age, not by bloodthirstiness like I assume Calytrix was, so maybe I can find a way to get myself there to give you some support."

"That sounds good."

"All right! I'll keep you posted as I hear from Ruby, and we'll probably have you do some training sessions on interacting with the tributes with me and Zander before January. Are you nervous?"

"A little. But at least my kid won't die."

* * *

Lyla Orit stood in front of the assembled group of potential mentors from Five. The relationship between the Selection ladies and the Victors in Five was much better than in almost every other district, primarily because one former Selection contestant was the daughter of a Victor, and another former contestant was married to that daughter. So, Lyla wasn't particularly nervous about calling this meeting with the Victors and the Selection girls together.

"First of all, everyone, I'm very proud of you all and the images you've portrayed over the past few years. We are the district with the highest percentage of approved mentors, at 75 percent, so very well done. More importantly, neither of the rejected mentors were rejected for personality reasons; the screening committee thought Erin was too young, and that Astrid's association with a Quell was a negative for the eventual goal of the Events. That means that we are also the only district where nobody was rejected for their character in the Games or after them, which is amazing. I'm very proud of you all." A smattering of applause followed.

"However, this obviously isn't going to be quite that easy. In the correspondence from President Emerald, it specified that, if possible, she doesn't want anyone related to each other to mentor together. That means that, in an ideal situation, Ali can't mentor with Khara or Phoebe, and they can't mentor with each other. Not only that, but the president also requested that we send over at least one mentor, if not two, to help Nissan out in Thirteen because he's their only mentor and he's still twelve. So, we need to figure out who is mentoring here in Five, who is going to help Thirteen, and who isn't mentoring at all."

"Maybe the first question to ask is if there's anyone who doesn't want to mentor in Thirteen because of things happening here in Five," Ali began.

"I do think I'm a bit old to be traveling to Thirteen," Lyla offered. "I'm fine with taking the train to the Capitol but I don't think going so far away to Thirteen and then back. It's better for me to stay and mentor here."

"Would it be OK if I didn't mentor?" asked Pandora. "That part of winter is meet season for my girls, so I don't know if I can leave for a large chunk of that."

"That's fine, Pandora," Ali said. "It's good that you have your priorities straight."

"In that case, I'm going to ask that you leave, with all due respect. Thank you for coming, Pandora!"

"It's always great to see everyone!" exclaimed Pandora. She picked up her gymnastics bag and headed out to practice.

"Here's an idea," proposed Alana. "Let's send Ali, Khara, and either me or Alana to Thirteen to help Nissan. This way, we can not only give Nissan a lot of s port, but also train him and Khara in how to mentor. Then, Watson, Phoebe, Lyla, and either me or Alana can stay here in Five to give Phoebe training and also to support Watson if he needs."

"I like that," nodded Brinna. "I think, in terms of number of years of mentoring, it's better if you stay and I go, because you have four years on me but Ali has fewer than Lyla."

"That makes sense to me, but I think that, as the oldest living Victor, Lyla has the final call."

"And I think that's quite a good plan. Remember that we'll all be in the Capitol together too, so Khara and Phoebe, you don't have to worry about being separated for too long. I'll keep you all posted as I get more info. What I think would be the best course of action from here is to meet as those two mentoring groups to confirm our individual strategies, because the group working with Nissan might want to operate differently than the group staying with the Five kids. But, that doesn't need to happen now, so I guess we're good here."

* * *

"I always find it funny when I get invited out to coffee, because I don't drink it," Danira Muntaner admitted as she and Sydnee Leigh stood on line at the coffee shop in Six near Victor's Village. "My parents have always told me that I don't need caffeine. Naturally caffeinated is the exact wording they used, I think."

"I get the sense," smiled Sydnee. It had been quite some time since she'd worked with someone with a true youthful exuberance (Alex was the opposite of exuberant, and Gigi was just an idiot), and she was loving every second of it.

The two quickly ordered their drinks – Sydnee got an iced coffee, and Danira got hot chocolate with extra whipped cream – and then took a seat at a table. After a few more minutes of small talk, Sydnee eased Danira into the meat of their meeting.

"So what are your feelings about mentoring?"

"I'm actually really happy with being asked! I think that sometimes people forget how involved the Selection girls were with the Games; we did all of the standard pre-Games stuff with the tributes! So it's nice for me to have that validation of hey, yeah, you did that thing and almost died too."

"That's an interesting way to look at it. I never thought about it that way. Hmm. Interesting to think about! Anyway. I wanted to go over with you some of the procedures and expectations we have when we mentor. Obviously we're both in uncharted territory at this point, but I figured that if we were on the same page now, we'll be a really good pair once we get into the swing of the Events.

"I think the first question is this: would you prefer mentoring them separately or together?"

"I think we should cede to the kids, right?"

"So instinctively, I'd say yes. But, let's remember that you've never mentored before and you're, like, nine years removed from being in the Games process. So I don't want to jump your gun on whether or not you're ready to handle a competitor on your own."

"It can't be that hard, right?"

"It depends on the competitor you get. So if the tributes want to go separately, I think that, if you feel comfortable mentoring on your own, then you'll take the easier competitor and I'll take the harder one. I'll also be available to help you in any way you need even if we are doing this separately.

"Now I'm going to tell you a bit about the role of a mentor. Your goal should be to figure out what your competitor is good and to help them to foster those skills. The exact makeup of the Events is still very unclear, and so giving your competitor confidence is really, really important, especially if they're younger."

"Do we know anything about the structure of the Events?" asked Danira.

"Not really, which is why I'm kind of spitballing. There's a lot of speculation going around the Victors; some people are saying that it has to be something where everyone is in total control of their own fate, others are saying that the Events won't be entertaining if either the Capitol or the other competitors don't have a role in each other's placement. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we won't know exactly what we're doing until we get to the Capitol."

"That kind of frustrates me," admitted Danira. "Like, I feel like we know so little at this point. Is it always like this?"

"To a certain degree, yes. I mean, you know with the Games that certain things will always be the same, like that the tributes will need to work with weapons and that there will be a bloodbath. But the Arena changes, and you can't always know how things will shake out with the other tributes, and all that jazz. The uncertainty with the Events, though, is that the whole format is new. That's why it's so much more stressful than mentoring for the Games."

"I'm sure it'll be fine!"

"I sure hope so."

* * *

 **Well, that turned out a lot longer than I anticipated. I originally was gonna put all of the districts in one chapter but then it was 4800 words and I decided against it. So here's part 1. Part two will probably have the tribute list but also maybe not! Reminder that deadline is Sunday! Also I retitled the last chapter, so don't freak out.**

 **Anyway, yeah. That's about all I got. Keep up with the awesome submissions and I'll see y'all next time!**

 **Goldie031**


	5. The Mentors, Part 2

_Early November, 134 (still)_

* * *

"Did you mentor Nadina in the Fifth Quell, Alvin?" asked Reth Rubrum. "I can't remember."

"No, I got to mentor Freida."

"Fun."

"Did you mentor Nadina?"

"Sort of. I wasn't picked as a mentor but I ended up helping Johanna out."

"Oh."

The two fell silent.

"So do we use her is the question?" asked Reth.

Alvin thought for a second. "What are the other districts with Selection options doing?"

"One opted to not use Delilah. Six has no choice but to use Danira. Five is planning on primarily using their Selection girls for the Events so that their Victors can focus on the Games, but let's remember that two of their three Selection girls are related to a Victor so they're fine. And then it's us."

"Hmm."

The two fell silent again.

"We've been going back and forth about this for, like, an hour, and we're making no progress. We need to decide whether or not to use Nadina as a mentor. Do you have a preference?"

"I think we can do it all by ourselves," said Reth. "I mean, we've both done this with the Games for quite a few years. How different or hard could the Events be?"

"Unless the Capitol throws some sort of curveball at us," Alvin volleyed back. "Like if they double the number of competitors. Or if they've been lying this whole time. I don't have enough faith in the Capitol to be confident that neither of those will happen. And that's just two potential issues we'll run into."

"Alvin, calm down. I am sure that everything is going to work out just fine. We can definitely do this mentoring thing, and I'm fairly certain we can do it by ourselves. You just gotta trust the process."

"When has that ever worked for us?"

"Maybe this time will be the charm."

* * *

"What have you heard from Eleven on this one?" Neelee Hem asked Rose Web as the two sat in Neelee's basement.

"They're conflicted," Rose replied, reading some of the correspondence she'd received from the rebels in Eleven. "Some of them very strongly agree with what's going on, and they like that this seems to point to a governmental direction that's not the Hunger Games; after all, decisions have been pretty good since Snow's no-change clause expired. Some just don't trust the President, or hate the Capitol, and so they're against it as a result, and some don't quite trust the President, but they're waiting to pass judgement until they see what happens in the Games. And then there's the small group of people who are training in the Academy in Eleven who are against it because it might lead to the elimination of the Games. What do you have from Nine?"

"Nine's response has been generally positive," Neelee said. "Apparently there's been a lot of talk among the younger kids about who would get to represent the district in the Events when they're old enough. The adults are, understandably, a bit nervous, but with the little kids so excited, they can't burst the kids' bubbles quite yet because they have no proof. Seven?"

"I actually haven't been able to get in touch with anyone from Seven," admitted Rose. "It wouldn't surprise me if they're still arguing about who is going to mentor. That's the kind of thing they spend hours on. If they've been focused on that, there's no way they're ready to feel out their district."

"Yeah, that's normal. Now, how are the rebels in our district feeling?"

Rose sighed. "Worse than Eleven. I mean, obviously there's always a lot of apprehension in Eight. But, remember that everything Ruby has done since the no-change clause ran out has been good. And the majority of the rebels here don't seem to put together that if they're less public with their rebelling, their kids won't go up for the Games. There's a reason why our district has the highest number of eligible kids."

"And every other rebel district seems to get it! The number of statutes in Eleven, Nine, and Twelve given out for rebellious activity has gone down since the Statutes started. Here in Eight, they've gone up. We're single-handedly shooting ourselves in the foot."

"All right, let's change gears. Do we have kids eligible for the Events? Remember that Games-eligible kids can't be drawn for the Events."

"We've got eligible kids of both genders, but not a lot of them. I think we're the only district with more kids eligible for the Games than the Events."

Rose groaned. "We're not succeeding in convincing the Capitol that things are getting better here. They just don't… ugh. All right. I'm hoping we can utilize the Events to show the rebels what they can do if they stop being so public with things."

"We can only hope."

* * *

"So how do we approach mentoring?" Sophie Sheaf asked her twin, Sarah. While Sophie was widely considered to be the more logical and smarter mentor, she frequently yielded to her sister when it came to mentoring strategy because Sarah won at an older age and actually had a strategy in the Games.

"I honestly think we're going to end up mostly being mentored by the competitors," Sarah admitted, "rather than them being mentored by us. We don't really have a sense of the process of these Events. Is there gonna be training? Are we going to go through it? Will there be stations? I think once we get more information from them as they go through training, we'll be able to give them better advice."

"But then aren't we leaving them in the dark?" pointed out Irabella Miller, the closest of the Nine mentors to being in the Games. "I mean, at least when I was reaped, I was dependent on my mentor for everything." She shot Sophie a sweet smile. "I would have been lost without that support and experience."

"But we don't have any experience in what the kids whose names are drawn are going to be going through," Sarah emphasized. "We can't give them guidance at something we don't get."

"But I do think," Riker Mannison pointed out, "that a mentor can support their mentee without completely knowing how to handle strategy for the Events. I think we need to focus on not what we can't do, but what we can do: give them an interview angle and help them not freak out. Let's also remember that, unlike in your case, Irabella, they're not gonna die. So maybe they don't need the same support that you did. Or maybe they do. We won't know until we start with them and until we figure out what they need. I think that's the big difference between the Events and the Games; with the Games, every tribute kind of needs the same support, but with the Events, it's possible that different competitors will need different things year to year."

"I think we just have to accept that this is going to be a learning curve," Sarah concluded. "It's possible that it could take a few years for us to figure this all out."

"That's kind of annoying," lamented Irabella. "I don't like leaving so much to chance."

"Irabella," smiled Sophie, "as you mentor more, you'll learn that you end up leaving a lot to chance because of the way the Games are. It feels like we don't know all that much, but we know just about as much as we know before each Games. Maybe a little less because the format is all new. But mentoring is about learning how to make it seem that you know the unknown. This time, we're just going to be public about the fact that we don't know so much. But we'll still pretend we know a little bit."

"So we'll know things we don't know even though we don't know that we know them?" Irabella processed.

"Exactly. Wait, what?"

* * *

Zolt MacEnroe logged on to her computer, preparing to video-chat with her fellow Ten mentors. She was currently doing some research in a university in Three on some complicated number principle, a passion she'd discovered after becoming a Victor, but with the Events fast approaching, she had to take some time out of her research to prepare with her fellow Victors, Michelle Cabello and Bessie Heifer. Unfortunately for Zolt, Michelle and Bessie were both notoriously bad at working with computers.

"Hello?" yelled Michelle through the computer. "Hello? Is this thing on?"

"Yes, Michelle. You're doing it right."

"Can you see me?" she yelled.

"Yep. Can you see me?"

"NO! WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"Michelle. Calm down. Look for a button that looks like a camera."

"A what?"

"A camera. A square connected to a triangle. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"What does it look like?"

"You just told me. A square connected to a triangle!"

Zolt internally groaned. "Does it have a line through it?"

"No."

"Is it red?"

"Yes."

"Click on it."

"One click or two clicks?"

"One click."

Michelle carefully clicked the camera. "Now it's green."

"Is it working now?"

"No."

Zolt quickly glanced over at her video chat settings to make sure her camera was on. When she saw that it was, she turned back to Michelle. "OK. Go to the top left of your screen and press file."

"File."

"Now click show video."

"Show video. Oh, there you are. Hi, Zolt!"

"Hi, Michelle. Where's Bessie?"

"She's at her house. She's gonna sign on from there."

At that moment, another person joined the chat. "Bessie, is that you?" yelled Michelle. "I can't hear or see you."

It was at that moment that Zolt realized that there was no way they were going to get anyway with the plans for Events mentoring unless she went back to Ten. "I guess I'd better pack up," she muttered.

"Zolt, what did you say?" yelled Michelle. "I can't hear you."

* * *

"Have you heard back from Ruby yet?" Ivie Mark asked Quiinn Jones as the two walked down Victors' Lane.

"No. She's still discussing it with the Games Fairness Committee."

"I don't understand why whether or not you can mentor is such a huge deal."

Quiinn sighed. "It's the principle of the matter. One of the things you'll learn as you go through this mentoring process is that Ruby believes very strongly in fairness. What she's discussing with the council is whether or not it's fair for me to mentor even though everyone else associated with a Quarter Quell Victor isn't allowed to mentor."

"But they're also all Careers!" Ivie exclaimed.

"Remember, they didn't get ruled out because they were Careers; otherwise, nobody from One, Two, or Four would be able to mentor. It was because they were associated with various bloody Quells. And granted, the Fourth Quell was pretty bloody. If the consensus is that it's not fair if they let me mentor but don't let anyone else, then I can't and it's that simple. Now, how do you feel about mentoring? I know you've never mentored before."

"I want to work with someone to do it, either Skylar or Beckia. Or you, but you'll probably do the boy and I'd prefer to start with a girl."

"Sure. I've heard that a few other districts are also using this as a training forum for their younger mentors, so I think Jasmine from One is mentoring, as is Ariel from Four. And Five is also doing a lot of training by mentoring. So I'm totally down with teaching you to mentor through this process. I think it's a really good idea. I'd probably put you with Skylar over Beckia, just because I think she's got a bit of a better head on her shoulders for teaching and Beckia can be more… emotionally fragile. How do you feel about being around some of the other younger Victors? I think that most of the mentors are gonna be within ten years of your age."

"I like Ariel. She was really sweet with Nissan, so I'm excited to get to know her. Jasmine is still like, what, three years older than me? I don't know exactly if we're going to get along, especially because she is a Career. Giovano is also around my age, so that's fun. Who else?"

"Well, Hannibal is also Jasmine's age. But he's not mentoring this year."

"Anyway, no. He was scary."

"Do you have any fears about mentoring?"

"I guess if my competitor is older than me. How do I mentor an eighteen-year-old that won't listen to me if I turn seventeen right before the Events?"

"That's a legit concern. I think that's why it's good that you'll have Skylar's support; she knows how to handle the tough stuff."

"I think I understand the basics of mentoring. It's just so hard to tell how everything is going to work because this is all kinda new."

"Trust me, Ivie. Every district feels the same way."

Suddenly, Ivie stopped walking and turned to Quiinn. "I just realized something. Something kind of bad."

"Yes?"

"I'm only seventeen. And I'm not under a Reaping statute. That means that I'm technically still eligible for the Drawing of Names. Right?"

* * *

"I take it we're all mentoring for this one, right?" Delilah Laurel asked. "I mean, with the new structure, we have no idea what's going to happen."

"Yeah. If this becomes something that someone is more or less comfortable with, or if someone is more or less comfortable working with a given competitor, I want to be able to shuffle people around as need be. So having all hands on deck is exactly what we need to do."

"So what's our plan?" Asha asked Damien. "How are we divvying up mentor responsibilities?"

"I think we're going to go with two pairs. Two of us will be primarily in charge of working with a competitor, while the other two will mostly work on working the Capitolites if necessary. I don't know if there is a Capitolite aspect to the Events, but if there is, we need someone convincing them to go our way. So here's my thinking of how to do that. I'm gonna mentor because I'm the only male, and I think that Asha, you should mentor, just to give you a little more experience. Meanwhile, Lilac and Delilah will work the Capitolites. They still love you two from your back-to-back wins, and you're great at charming them. I think that's the best possible way to succeed in getting the best for our competitors."

"Hang on," said Lilac. "Are all of the districts going with this method?"

"Yes. Or at least something similar."

"But what if there's also an aspect where we have to charm the people in the districts?"

Everyone turned to Lilac. This was a possibility that none of them had thought about before.

"What exactly do you mean?" asked Damien.

"You all know how hell-bent Ruby is on fairness, right? I very strongly doubt that, if the Capitolites have a say in the result, that the Districts won't have a say. Because that wouldn't be fair. The only problem is that it's hard to pitch our competitors to not only the Capitol but also to all of the Districts."

"I never thought of that," Damien mused.

"But is there anything we can really do?" Asha pointed out. "I think that it'll be impossible to market our competitors to every district at the same time because, A, all the cultures are so different, and B, every district has their own competitor to root for. I think that, if we're going to try to market our kid outside of our district, we need to pick one district to focus on. And the only district that we know how to consistently market our tributes to is the Capitol. So I think we should focus on the Capitol."

"But how much success have we had with marketing tributes to the Capitol?" Delilah added. "Maybe, if we're aiming for one district, we should aim for one more akin to us."

"There is no district akin to us," Asha replied. "That would be easy for Three/Five/Six, or for the Career districts, but not so much for Twelve."

"Damien, what do you think?"

"I think," Damien said carefully, "that we need to see how this whole process goes. As soon as we get more information from Ruby, we'll make more concrete decisions. I do agree that we need to take into account the possibility Lilac brought up, but until we know for sure, we're going to wait. For now, let's focus on figuring out how to mentor our kids. I think that's the best bet until we know more information."

"I hate the feeling of being at a standstill," groaned Asha.

"Trust me, we all do."

* * *

"Hey, Nissan! You have a letter from the Capitol!" his mother, Acela Triska, called from the living room. "Come open it so I can see what's inside."

Acela heard the sound of a book slamming on the floor, followed by running feet, after which her son appeared at the foot of the stairs. Nissan eagerly grabbed the letter out of his mother's hands, plopped down on the couch, and began to read.

Acela Triska was still amazed by the lack of impact the Games had on her son. She had said goodbye three and a half months prior to a bubbly, happy little boy, and by some miracle, she'd gotten that same bubbly, happy little boy back. (Acela made a mental note to thank Ariel Marsh for keeping her son safe when she came to Thirteen during the Victory Tour.) Even more impressively, he'd come back with the same love for and fascination about the Capitol as he'd had when he left, despite being the tribute in his Games, and potentially in the history of the Games, with the biggest reason to hate the Capitol. After all, Nissan was eligible for the Games under a seven-year statute given to his father, whom he had never met, for raping his mother when she was just sixteen. Even though Acela was forever haunted by the memory of that night, the perennial optimist in her decided to keep the baby as a reminder of how miracles can come from bad things. But she still desired a distance from Nissan's father that she was never really able to get, which was why she decided to leave District Six for District Thirteen shortly after Thirteen was resettled.

"So, what does it say?" asked Acela.

"Well, it first clarifies that I'm not eligible for the Events because I'm a Victor, which I kinda figured. It also says that the Victory Tour will conclude with the Opening Ceremonies for the Events, and that I'll be mentoring the Events with the help of some people from Five."

"Are you excited?"

Nissan looked up at his mother. "I don't know. It's kind of cool to be mentoring in something new, but at the same time, I'm a bit nervous about mentoring people who are probably older than me."

"Well, that's probably why you're getting support," Acela pointed out. "Five has a ton of hands, so I'm sure they'll be able to give you good advice. Does it say anything else?"

Nissan scanned the letter. "Nope!" he lied poorly.

"Let me see it." Acela took the letter from her son and read it. "Nissan, the letter says that I have to come with you because you're under sixteen."

"But MOOOOOM! It's gonna be so embarrassing! I'll be the only Victor with a parent there."

"I'll just be there to make sure you don't get into any trouble with the other Victors. You're still not allowed to drink while you're under my roof as a non-adult, and I've heard what some of these Victors do during the Games."

"Mom, I'm still twelve. You know how much I value my bedtime. Don't worry – I won't do anything stupid. You reeeeally don't have to come. It might be inconvenient for you for work!"

"Nice try, Nissan. I'm coming with you."

"I bet Lavender Aroma's mom didn't come with her right after she won," Nissan grumbled.

"Lavender also knows seventeen ways to kill you using a knife, and that's just from your neck up. No questions, Nissan."

"Fine."

* * *

 **Hmm. Nothing big happening today, is there?**

 **Nope?**

 **Just kidding.**

 **First of all, I have to thank you so, so, so much for all of the amazing submissions. I received 66 submissions, and it was so hard for me to put everything together. I put the list of the final 28 up on my profile; I did a ton of rearranging, so make sure to check the whole list for your competitor(s). I'm so sorry if your competitor didn't make it in – it was just about what made the most sense for the story. If your competitor made it, congrats! I'm going to be sending PMs around to everyone just to confirm that you're still reading, because it has been a while since I started submissions, and I may be asking you about potential changes to your competitor. Important: NOT ACCEPTING A CHANGE DOESN'T MEAN I'LL CHANGE MY MIND ABOUT A COMPETITOR.**

 **I can't guarantee an update schedule – school is nuts, plus we're getting close to Jewish Holiday season. The Reaping order will be based on distance from the Capitol according to the map I use, which means Thirteen will be up first! What format do y'all want for the Reapings, more of an intro or a Reaping or both? Also, I'd love to hear first impressions on the competitors by their names. Who are you excited to see?**

 **Thank you all so much for your support. I can't wait to see how this story takes flight!**

 **-goldie031**


	6. District Thirteen

**A few things before we get into it!**

 **If you submitted a tribute who didn't make it in, and you want the forms back, just PM me and I'll send them to you.**

 **I'm not going to be tracking reviews per se, instead using the check in method, but reviews are always appreciated.**

 **Every competitor has their name in the bowl five times, regardless of age, so everyone is on equal footing.**

 **I think that's it! Here's our first Drawing of Names chapter. I've decided not to set a concrete format – we might see intros sometimes, we might see Drawing of Names Day scenes, we might see a combination. We will, I think, always see the actual Drawing of Names from a mentor POV, but I'm not going to block myself into that.**

 **So, here are the tributes from the farthest district, District Thirteen: Aelyx Stark and Henley Moriarty!**

* * *

 _Aelyx Stark, 18  
Flashback: Ten Years, Four Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

Aelyx Stark and his twin Alysanne sat next to the doorway of their parents' room, each holding a glass. They didn't know the origin of the idea that holding a glass to a wall could help one hear through the wall, nor did they know if it actually worked, but they figured that it was worth a shot.

"The twins have to go," insisted their stepmother. "They make life that much harder for my babies."

"But they are my kids…" their father responded.

"Since when have you actually cared about their well-being? You don't care for your children any more than you care for that rock over there in the garden."

"But they are my only flesh and blood! Sure, I don't care for them. But I kind of want them near me. They remind me of her."

"Her?"

"Their mother."

Aelyx could hear their stepmother roll her eyes. "Don't you have a second cousin who lives down the street?"

"I don't know. Do I?"

"Enough of this. Listen very closely. If those kids aren't out of the house in a week's time, I'll be." The twins heard the sound of heels, then a door slam.

"I do feel bad for them," murmured their father to himself. "Her kids always blame things on Aelyx and Alysanne, and she always gets them in trouble for it. Maybe it would be better for them if I let them go."

Three days later, Aelyx and Alysanne stood with their father on a train platform. Each had a backpack, two small suitcases, and one larger suitcase, filled with all of their possessions. Their stepmother and half siblings had said goodbye back at the house; even eight-year-old Aelyx could tell that they were just faking their sadness at seeing him and his twin go.

"Listen to me, kids," Aelyx's father instructed as they stood in front of the train. "This train should go straight to District Two, which will be its only stop. When you get there, a man named Erik Stark will meet you. He's your mother's brother. He'll take you to your new home. I love you both, and I hope you have safe travels and a good childhood." He gave his twins the most awkward hugs either had ever received, helped them load their bags, then left before the train had even pulled out of the station.

"Aelyx?" Alysanne looked at her older brother (by all of four minutes). "Are you afraid?"

"Yes, Alysanne. A little bit. But we have each other and that's the important thing."

"How long is the train ride?"

"I dunno."

"Didn't Dad tell you?"

"Who's Dad?"

"You know, our father?"

Aelyx looked at his sister. "He isn't our father. He might be our biological father, but he didn't raise us. He's not our real father. We shouldn't call him Dad."

"Will our uncle be our new dad?"

"We'll see if he deserves the title of Dad."

"So what do we call our birth father?"

Aelyx thought. "I dunno. We have a long time to come up with something."

Ninety-seven hours later (at least, that's how the two very bored eight-year olds perceived it), the train arrived at the station in Two. The doors opened, and a slightly scary-looking man in military uniform stepped into the car. "Where are Aelyx and Alysanne Stark?"

Aelyx timidly raised his hand. "We're here."

The man brightened up. "I'm so happy you've made it here! Your father told me you'd be traveling on your own, and I was a bit worried that you'd be nervous and that you would make it. But you're here and that's what matters. I'm your Uncle Erik; your Aunt Cara and cousin Patrick are waiting in the car. If you ever feel comfortable, though, feel free to call your aunt and I Mom and Dad. But that's for later. Come on, let's get your stuff and go home. You have so much to tell me about yourselves; we have to make up for lost time!"

* * *

 _Henley Moriarty, 16  
Three Weeks Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

Henley scanned the lunchroom for her friends, Mitch, Cecily, Gordon, and Mia. While their particular program was on the small side, they went to school in the same building as most of the kids in Thirteen, so it was sometimes difficult to find each other in the lunchroom. Eventually, Henley spotted her friend group and made her way to the table.

"How was your morning, Henley?" Cecily asked.

"It was good," Henley replied, setting her backpack down under her chair. "We did the SSC block today."

"Ooh, that's exciting," Gordon said. "Did you do well?"

"I think so. We did stealth, and I got to the destination and back without screwing up, so I guess."

"Nicely done," smiled Mia.

The friend group had a lunch period of lively chatter until the bell rang, at which point everyone in the room got up and brought their trays to the disposal. On the way out, Henley was stopped by a Peacekeeper.

"Ms. Moriarty?"

"That's me," Henley said."

"Commander Stark would like to speak with you."

Henley turned to her friend group, who (appropriately) looked shocked. "Henley, I think you're getting a mission!" exclaimed Mitch.

"No way. There are so few underage missions and I'm originally Thirteen, not Panem. There's no shot it would go to me, especially because I've got the brightest hair in Thirteen."

"Don't you think that division is gone by now?"

"Maybe by now, because the special Thirteen Statute expired after Nissan's Games. But I still think it's there a little bit." Henley turned to the Peacekeeper. "I'll be there in a minute." The Peacekeeper left the room; Henley finished clearing her tray and followed him.

Henley had grown up in Thirteen. She was eleven when the Capitol discovered Thirteen during the redistricting, which took place after the 129th Hunger Games, and could still remember the fear she'd felt when she learned what the Games were and when she saw them for the first time. Henley had been lucky to escape Reaping both in the Thirteen bowl and in the Statute bowl; however, she had a feeling that part of that had to do with her status as a member of the Special Ops unit.

When Henley was five, she had been recruited to join the Special Ops unit in Thirteen. They were the elite soldiers in the district, prepared to go on secret missions into the districts, or even out of the country if need be. But then, the Capitol came, and moved their whole military base from Two to Thirteen. Most of the original Thirteen branches of the military were dissolved and mixed into the Panemian forces. The one exception was the SpOps branch; the whole unit was merged as it was with the Capitol's SpOps branch to make one larger unit with one Thirteen and one Captiol/Two commander. The underage branch was primarily made up of kids from the original Thirteen at this point, because the Capitol didn't have an underage branch prior to the redistricting.

Henley followed the Peacekeeper through the winding corridors of the underground part of Thirteen until she arrived at the SpOps office. After a few moments, she was called in to the office of Commander Stark, the Capitol commander of the SpOps branch.

"Hello there, Henley. How are you?"

"I'm doing well, Commander Stark. And you?"

"Well, thank you. I have to tell you, Henley, we have been very impressed with your work. As you know, you've been in the elite division of our underage branch for some time now, and we have been very happy with your work."

"Thank you, Commander Stark."

"We have been doing a lot of thinking, and we believe that your excellent performance in class and training makes you the most qualified candidate to take on a mission. As you know, I can't reveal the details of the mission until you accept it, but I can say, to help you decide, that it relates to a very special event in three weeks' time."

Henley thought for a moment. Clearly, the mission had something to do with the Events. Henley was a bit apprehensive about the Events because they were new, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to be involved with something that had such potential to go wrong. But, there were very few missions offered for the underage division, and being involved with a mission in the underage branch meant a higher likelihood of getting a mission when she was older.

Plus, she wasn't going into the Games.

"I'll take it," Henley said.

"Very good. Please come with me into the briefing room."

* * *

Nissan was tired. He'd just finished up his Victory Tour the day prior in the Capitol, and was then whisked back to Thirteen early on the morning of the first two days of Drawing of Names to escort the competitors he was mentoring to the Capitol for the events, and then he'd be formally opening the events the next night at the Opening Ceremonies. All he wanted to do was curl up into a ball with his teddy bear and watch TV – after all, he was only twelve. He wouldn't even be turning thirteen for another three months!

Nissan did think that the method of having multiple days for the Drawing of Names was much smarter. The further districts would all be drawing that day and traveling to the Capitol overnight, while the districts that bordered the Capitol would draw their names on the morning of the Opening Ceremonies. Hopefully, everyone would arrive at the Capitol at around the same time, and everyone would be styled and ready by the evening's ceremonies.

"Come on, Nissan!" called his mother. "We have to go meet up with the mentors coming in from Five before the Drawing of Names."

"Coming!" Nissan yelled. He put on a pair of shoes and headed downstairs.

Acela looked at his son. "Nissan! You need to be dressed nicely for today. Go put on a button-down and slacks."

"But Mom!"

"Let's go. March, young man." Acela walked Nissan up to his room, helped him put on a nice outfit, and then led walked with her son to the Justice Building for the Drawing of Names.

When they arrived, a member of the Games Fairness Council met them at the door. "Nissan, you'll go into the building and meet up with the Five mentors. I can't allow you in, Acela, so you can either head home and meet us at the station or I can lead you to the train right now."

"I'll go pack a bit more. Stay safe, Nissan."

"Bye, Mommy." Nissan followed the Councilmember into the Justice Building. He was led to a small holding room in which Thirteen's escort, Aurelia Marnoy, and the helping mentors from Five were waiting.

"Nissan!" exclaimed the male in the room. "Hi, I'm Ali Nightingale, and I'll be helping you learn how to mentor and also supporting your competitor. This is my daughter-in-law, Khara, who will be mentoring the female tribute, and her support mentor, Alana Wright. And the escort, Aurelia Marnoy. We're very excited to work with you!"

Nissan gave an energetic wave. "I'm really excited to mentor! It's great that my first competitor will definitely come home."

"Yes, it's something we're all very excited about."

The mentors spent the time before the actual Drawing of Names getting to know each other and figuring out each other's styles. (Nissan had not thought of a mentoring style prior to that little meeting.) After about twenty minutes, they were led by the Councilmember out to the stage for the Drawing of Names.

"Welcome, everyone, to the Drawing of Names for the first Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events!" announced the mayor of Thirteen. "First, let's welcome Thirteen's first ever Victor, Nissan Triska!"

Nissan's entrance brought a solid round of applause out from the crowd. The original Thirteeners were just happy to have a Victor of their own, while the people originally from Two didn't consider the way he won to be up to their standards.

"Next, please welcome our helper mentors for the year – because, after all, Nissan is still twelve – Ali Nightingale, Khara Imperium Nightingale, and Alana Wright!" The Five mentors got a polite smattering of applause, considerably less than Nissan received.

"And, as I do not have to read the Treaty of Treason, we'll get right to the drawing! Our escort for this year's Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events is the lovely Aurelia Marnoy. Aurelia, take it away."

"Hello everyone!" Aurelia began brightly. "I'm so excited to be your escort for the inaugural Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events. I don't want to keep you any later than you have to, so I'll get right to the drawing. As always, we'll start with the ladies."

Aurelia approached the first bowl. She drew a slip and brought it back to the microphone. "Henley Moriarty!"

Nissan watched as a girl wearing a dark blue pleated dress came out of the sixteen-year-old section. She was a bit tall for her age, and had bright, red hair that fell just past her shoulders. She seemed surprised, but quickly – almost too quickly – regained control of herself and confidently made her way to the stage.

Once Henley had taken her place, Aurelia reached into the second bowl. "Aelyx Stark!" she announced.

As the leanly muscled, nearly six-foot-tall, eighteen-year-old boy with slightly curly, jet black hair and icy blue eyes approached the stage, Nissan's heart dropped. This was the boy – no, the man, judging by the dark blue dress shirt, khaki cargo pants, and hiking boots he was wearing - he was supposed to mentor? That was like a fly telling an elephant what to do! Nissan turned around and gave Ali a scared look; the older man put a comforting hand on Nissan's shoulder, as if to say that it would all work out.

"Ladies and gentlemen," announced Aurelia, "your competitors, Henley Moriarty and Aelyx Stark!"

* * *

 **So here is our first pair: Aelyx, courtesy of Sparky She-Demon, and Henley, courtesy of Goldilocks775! What do you think of our friends Aelyx and Henley? Will Nissan be able to mentor Aelyx? What exactly is Henley's mission? Which of them do you like better?**

 **Next chapter, we'll head to the southernmost district, District Ten! See y'all there!**

 **-goldie031**


	7. District Ten

**Make sure to read the author's note at the end of the chapter. On to our second Drawing of Names!**

* * *

 _Ramona Wayland, 13  
Six Months, Three Weeks Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

It was unusual for Ramona Wayland to be alone on a Sunday morning. The girl was the biggest social butterfly in Ten, and could frequently be found on any afternoon out in a park under a tree. Today, however, two things were holding her back from going outside.

For one thing, it was _hot_. Living in Ten meant heat waves, and while Ramona didn't like them, she'd gotten used to them; however, she couldn't remember the last time it was this hot. Ramona couldn't even be in the shade; she needed to be right next to her air conditioner with the cool breeze blowing in her face.

Ramona had actually considered going outside for half a second before she opened up the first page of her book. Sure, she'd read it eight times. But every time she saw it, she gravitated towards it; there was something almost sentimental about coming back to the same book over and over. As soon as she started it, she knew she wouldn't be able to put it down until she finished it.

The book itself was one of the first ancient books discovered by the Department of Culture: _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe._ Rowena loved reading about the Pevensie siblings, but especially Lucy, the adventurous and sensitive sister who loved to explore. She hoped to someday be just like Lucy.

Suddenly, Ramona heard her father, Wolf, call her: "Ramona! Alexei's here!" Instantly, Ramona threw her book down and ran to the door. (She would later be very annoyed because she lost her page.)

"Alexei! What's up?"

"Let's go on a walk. I have some news."

"But it's so _hot_!"

"Come on."

Ramona could tell by her friend's tone of voice that this was serious, so she followed Alexei on the path to their favorite park. When they got there, they found the rest of their friend group seated in a circle under a tree. Serena had brought her handheld fan with her, clearly not in the mood to deal with the heat either.

"So," Alexei began, "I have some news for you. Some of you may know that I've been applying for a few technology programs in Three. And today, I got this letter." Alexei took a folded piece of paper from his pocket and opened it up. "It says that I've been accepted to my top choice program!"

"That's wonderful, Alexei!" exclaimed Penny.

"I'm so happy for you!" added Samira.

"I talked it over with my parents, and they're willing for me to go there. However, the school is a boarding school. (Not that it would have been feasible for me to commute from Ten to Three every day, or even every week.) So, in the first week of August, I'm going to be moving from here to Three."

The kids fell silent. Ramona didn't know what to think. Sure, she and Alexei often annoyed each other. And maybe sometimes she did wish that he wasn't there. But the two of them did have a very good relationship, and it would be a shame for that relationship to disappear when he left.

"Will you be back during the summers?" Ramona asked.

"I don't know if Three has a summer work break," Alexei said. "I kind of doubt it because they're not an agricultural region. Plus, I might be able to take advanced summer work classes. I think that I'll become a Three resident for the sake of the theoretical event that I end up eligible for the Games, because I'll have continued residence there for more than seven months leading up to July. (That's what they told me is the way they determine residence for minors.) But I can probably still visit if I'm not Games eligible."

"So what are we going to do without a tech guru?"

Alexei smiled. "Someone is going to have to learn. Maybe one of you? Or maybe someone else? I've heard that Zolt MacEnroe wants to start teaching tech stuff in Ten."

"I thought Zolt was doing research on numbers," mentioned Felix.

"Ooh, I like numbers," added Tara.

The conversation diverged into the possible research that could be done on numbers. While everyone else was talking, Ramona scooted around the circle to be next to Alexei.

"We should be pen pals," Ramona said. "That way you can still know what happens in Ten and I'll learn about Three. I think Three is pretty cool."

"I would like that," Alexei said. "I'm going to miss it here in Ten. There are no wide-open spaces in Three."

"But there are tall buildings and cool things! Three is probably so different."

"I'm sure. And I'll make sure to write to you."

"I can't wait to have a real pen pal!"

* * *

 _Kitt Mosley, 17  
Three and a Half Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"Up and 'atem, Kitt! It's opening day!"

Living in District Ten, the summers were often so hot that it wasn't profitable to run the Mosley Family Rodeo Extravaganza: it was too hot for the bull-riders, too hot for the people working with the bulls and horses behind the scenes, and too hot for anyone to come out to watch. So, the rodeo went on a hiatus from May to the end of September, and today was finally the day that everything was going to begin.

Kitt jumped out of bed and put on his cowboy outfit. He didn't actually ride anything in the rodeo, not after what happened when he was five; instead, he did a job that could be arguably more dangerous: preparing the bulls to go out into the ring by leading them through corrals and getting them into the proper chutes. He knew that his father would rather his only child ride the horses, but Kitt did what he felt comfortable with.

After a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and home fries, prepared lovingly by Kitt's mother, Sierra, Kitt and his father headed out to the rodeo arena. When they got there, they found some of the riders already gathered around, including Kitt's friends Katerina and Diego, two of the younger members of the team. Once the new structure of the Games was introduced, Kitt's parents had made an effort to hire some of the older teens who weren't eligible for the Reaping; as there wasn't a fear that they would get chosen and die, they could start training kids when they were younger who would become profitable riders for the rodeo when they grew older.

"G'morning, Kitt!" exclaimed Diego. "You ready to get this show on the road?"

"Yeah. I kinda miss my little bull friends. You ready to ride 'em?"

"Always! It's my favorite part of the week!"

"How are you doing, Katerina?"

"I'm fine," Katerina replied in her sweet southern drawl. "I don't think I'm riding today, because I still have a bit of work to do on my skills. But I'm excited to watch!" Katerina was one of the newest members of the Mosley Rodeo team, and had very quickly become good friends with some of the other younger people involved.

"It's still early in the season, though. You could still ride later on!"

"I want to. But it's hard to study with Sierra while she's working the rodeo. We'll see how it goes. Hey, Kitt," she changed the subject, "why don't you ride?"

Kitt gave Diego a look. "Should I tell the story?"

"You're going to anyway."

"Correct.

"When I was five, I started to ride horses. I kind of liked it at the beginning, because I was on this cute little pony and it really liked me. But then my dad graduated me from a pony to a bronco. The first day that I rode him, the dang bronco bucked me off! I flew through the air, tumbling over and over until I landed smack on my arm. Mama and Papa rushed me to the hospital and we got it all casted up, but it scared me off from riding forever."

Katerina looked at Kitt skeptically. "Really?"

"Yes. You can ask Diego."

"Well, that wouldn't scare me from nothing!"

"Aren't you cool?"

Suddenly, Kitt's father came around the corner. "Let's go, guys! We're about to have our big team meeting before we get started. Meet me over in the center of the ring around the lucky barrel."

Kitt, Diego, and Katerina embraced each other. Working at a rodeo was dangerous work, and who knew if all three would make it out of the day alive? But there was something about the thrill of working so close death that made them feel alive, and drew them back to working at the rodeo day after day, week after week, year after year.

* * *

"Do we have a plan yet, guys?" asked Zolt.

"I think we decided that we were going to pick our tributes after they're picked," Michelle suggested. "And then the third of us will just kind of be the overarching help."

Zolt sighed. She was the type of person who preferred having a plan in mind going into things; all of the vagueness surrounding the Events was making her anxious. But, there wasn't much more she could do but wait for things to pan out as they would.

"Where's Bessie again?"

"South City, just in case a tribute gets Reaped from there. We'll meet up at the train station and then head out after the Drawing." In District Ten, the main Reaping stage alternated yearly between North City and South City; as the Reaping for the 134th Games had the stage in North City, the Drawing of Names would also have its main stage there. "Did I say Reaped before?"

"Yeah."

Zolt remarked, "It's so hard to keep track of all of these changes. Anyway, where's our escort?"

"I've heard it's not the same one as the Games escort."

"That wouldn't surprise me."

At that exact moment, the door opened, and Dya Enner Hale, Eleven's secondary escort from the Fifth Quell, came in. Zolt vaguely remembered Dya as one of the shier Games escorts from 125, so she was unsurprised that Dya's method of greeting was no more than a shy wave.

"How are you, Dya?"

"Good."

And that was about all they were going to get out of Dya for the time being.

After a bit of anxious waiting, Dya received the signal that it was time to start. She followed Zolt and Michelle onto the stage in South City as the mayor gave them a polite introduction. Without needing to read the Treaty of Treason, the pre-Drawing went quite quickly, and soon enough, it was time to choose Ten's first two competitors in the Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events.

"As is traditional, I'll start with the ladies," Dya announced shyly. She walked over to the bowl to her right and carefully drew a name.

"Is there a Ramona Wayland?"

Zolt's eyes widened. She, like all of the Fourth Quell mentors from Ten, knew the name Wayland very well; after all, both Viktor and Rowena Wayland were Reaped for those horrible, deadly Games. She assumed that the girl approaching the stage from the thirteen-year-old section was the niece of those two deceased former tributes. Ramona certainly looked like her aunt; the two had the same dark brown hair, which Ramona kept in a pixie cut, and their faces had the same shape. Unlike Rowena, however, Ramona had pale skin and greenish-brown eyes. The young girl, who was wearing a blue hoodie, black leggings, a purple scarf, and purple sneakers, was smiling awkwardly, seemingly both excited and embarrassed, as she walked up to the stage. She waved to the crowd, then took her spot next to Zolt.

"Are you Rowena's niece?"

"Yes," replied Ramona. "Wolf is my father, and I was named after Rowena. My brother Hunter was named after Viktor."

"Well, I'll keep an extra eye out for you, dear. If you have any doubts or flashbacks or anything of the sort, feel free to let me know. I remember your siblings very well."

"Thank you," smiled the younger girl.

"And now, for the gentlemen," Dya announced. She walked over to the bowl on her left and selected a slip. "Is there a Kitt Mosley?"

The seventeen-year-old section parted around a tall and fairly muscular boy with short, curly brown hair, brown eyes, and tanned skin; he looked like a completely typical cowboy in his plaid button-up shirt, and, appropriately, cowboy boots. Kitt initially looked a bit surprised, but quickly an excited grin grew onto his face; he confidently strode from his place up to the stage. It was only when he took his place next to Ramona that Zolt realized both how tall he was and how short she was. Zolt wasn't good at eyeballing measurements, but there had to be a height difference of at least a foot between them. That was going to be a lot of fun for their stylists.

"Odd that both are from North City this year," Michelle pointed out.

"It's happened before," Zolt replied. "I'm more interested in trying to find a way to deal with this Drawing of Names thing. It's so short, and I don't think there's a point in having everyone come out for it. Maybe we can find another way to do it next year. I have some ideas."

"Do they have to do with technology?"

"Yes."

"Count me out."

* * *

 **So, here's our pair from District Ten, Ramona from Winter's Writing and Kitt from beauthg03! Same questions: What do you think of them? Who do you like better?**

 **A few notes before I sign off. First of all, I'm willing to accept submissions for escorts. I need three more for any district. I'm also looking for some sort of cover art for this story, so feel free to send me ideas!**

 **Also, we're hitting the phase of the year where my update schedule goes out the window. Over the next month, there are Jewish holidays every week, on which I won't be using my computer or phone or writing at all. All that stuff. So, if it takes me a while to get back to your PMs, that's why – it's not that I'm leaving the site, it's that I'm observant. I'm working on it.**

 **OH ALSO I KEEP FORGETTING THIS PART! This story actually is going to have a reader involvement section! It's going to be a decent part of who wins, as the readers will be representing the Capitol audience participation. So, you don't need to have a tribute in to participate in the reader involvement part, but those who will may or may not (I haven't decided yet) have a greater influence. I'd love if everyone who has a tribute would be involved!**

 **I think that's it. God knows when I'll get another chapter up, but I'll try my best!**

 **-goldie031**


	8. District Six

_Ventus Gorva, 18  
Two Years, Two Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"This whole mess is finally over," Vincent had said to his to kids, Ventus and Malva. "Your mother will no longer be able to use you, or any of us."

Ventus remembered being happy on that day, when they'd moved from District One to District Six. Being sixteen, he'd had a fairly clear understanding of what happened in the preceding year. First, his father had filed for divorce from his wife. When he'd found out, Ventus didn't quite understand why he'd chosen to do so; he'd been told that his mother was primarily doing things to use her family for her benefit, but how could enrolling her son in training be a bad thing? At best, he could win the Games and bring honor to his family, and at worst, he knew how to defend himself.

But the fifteen-year-old Ventus who couldn't quite understand his father's decision would never be able to fathom the roller coaster that would follow, the result of which would change Ventus's life forever. Because when Bethany learned about the divorce filing, she began to trash the name of her husband all over the district. In a matter of weeks, anyone who would once speak to Vincent refused, and those who he thought were his friends turned their backs on him. Life became almost as difficult for Ventus and Malva, as their friends' parents stopped letting them associate with the Gorva kids. It was almost as though they had no place in District One.

Finally, though, a glimmer of light emerged. Vincent had one true friend left, a friend who had moved from One to Six a year prior to the filing of the divorce papers. The friend offered to help Vincent get a job at the university he worked at once the court case was over and Vincent got custody. With that light willing him on, Vincent won the case, and so he and his children were now standing on a platform in Six, waiting for the car that would take them to their new home.

"I don't get why I have to leave the training center!" Malva exclaimed. "I'm doing so well for my district! I could totally win for One!"

"You could also train for Six now," replied Ventus. "There's an Academy and everything."

"But the glory is, like, meh if you're not in a Career district."

"Understandable."

"Kids, come on," Vincent said. "Maybe we don't have to train here in Six. We can have a new start! You can study to become teachers or scholars. You could study something that helps another district prosper! Imagine all of the possibilities!"

Ventus and Malva shared a look. Their father had been spouting out more and more of this anti-training rhetoric ever since the papers were filed. Most of what he said was bearable, even if it didn't make sense to the kids; this was just completely unreasonable.

Luckily for the whole family, their car pulled up at just that moment, successfully preventing a larger-scale argument. "Is this the car for the Gorvas?" Vincent asked the driver.

"Yes," said the driver angrily, as though he was more frustrated with his job than with the people he was driving. "Get on in." The Gorva family obliged as quickly as they could, putting their bags in the trunk and piling in to the car.

"So, where are you from?" asked Vincent, trying to make casual conversation with the driver.

"Here."

"Have you ever been to another district?"

"No. Certainly not One – I could never afford to go there," the driver spat.

"Oh." Vincent fell silent. Ventus could sense something in the driver's voice, but couldn't figure out what it was; Malva was completely oblivious.

Thankfully, the car ride was short; when they arrived at their townhouse, the Gorvas quickly unloaded their baggage, and gave the driver a polite thank you before he sped away. The three of them took their bags in and spent some time exploring and unpacking before Vincent and Malva heard the sounds of kids coming home from school (the two had been granted a week of adjustment time before beginning school themselves).

"Ooh, kids! Let's go meet the neighbors!" Malva exclaimed.

"All right, Mallie." Ventus led his sister outside, preferring instead to stay back on his steps and supervise.

Malva went up to a group of kids who looked to be about her age. "Hi!" she exclaimed. "I'm Malva. I'm new."

The group of kids waved to Malva, and they all introduced themselves. Ventus thought that Malva actually had a shot at making friends, which was really good for her! She was the kind of person who needed friends. Ventus didn't really need friends.

But then, the conversation took a turn.

"So, where did you move from?" asked the clear leader of the other group.

"I moved from One," Malva replied.

"Oh." Instinctively, the other kids took a step back from Malva. Out of courtesy, they continued the conversation, but clearly wanted to be much farther away from her. To her credit, Malva energetically continued the conversation, but the Six natives looked thrilled when it petered out and Malva went back home.

"I thought that went pretty well," Malva bragged to her brother.

"Yeah. Let's go with that," lied Ventus, ushering her into the house, realizing that this making friends thing might be harder than either of them thought.

* * *

 _Nell Edwards, 14  
One Year Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"Oh, do I have a scoop for you, Dad!" Nell exclaimed as she burst through the door from school. "Stuff went nuts at school today!"

Nell's father put down the article he was proofreading and looked at his daughter. "Honey, maybe this is more of a story for the school paper. I'll listen for sure, but I don't think it's necessarily appropriate for a Capitol audience. What happened?"

"Well." (That was how Nell always started her stories – a strong and determined "Well." It sometimes annoyed people, but Nell knew there was no changing it. She thought it made her sound more assertive, and that it ensured that people listened to her.) "Have I told you about my friend Malva Gorva?"

"Yeah. She's the One girl, right?"

"Correct. It took me a while to warm up to her, but she is a lot of fun, despite the fact that she is from One and that she is still training for the Games. Anyway, so Malva has an older brother Ventus."

"Yeah, you've told me about him before too. He's the scary one, right?" John Edwards was really good at engaging with, and trying to speed up, his daughter's stories.

"Right. So Ventus has always been a bit edgy and a fighter, not to mention that the kids in school don't like him because he's from One and he's not actually nice. He used to fight with bullies, and he can really beat them up, so I don't understand why people pick on him because they know it's going to end badly for them, but Ventus gets in the trouble for it and not the bullies. And he's also tried to fight less and less because it does have a negative impact on his family's reputation in the district. and I know this because I talk with Malva and it influences her." Nell was now on her verbal monologue roll, and she wasn't going to stop no matter what her father tried to do.

"But anyway. So, today during lunch, as usual, Ventus starts getting bullied. And you know everyone eats lunch together so obviously people are seeing what's happening. And you also can't take food out of the cafeteria, so everyone was in there while this whole thing was happening because you don't want to leave the cafeteria during lunch or you can't go back in to get more food. So things start out with the regular verbal bullying – you know, the standard 'Go back to One!' and all that jazz. And some of us are kind of getting tired of all of this bullying stuff because we see it every day and it's mean and nothing new happens. So nobody is really paying attention until we hear a crack of a bone. And we all look over, and one guy is standing holding Ventus's arm in a very unnatural position, and the other guy has a knife to Ventus's neck."

"And what happened next?" her father prompted after a moment.

"Well, the Peacekeepers came in and stopped everything and arrested the two bullies and got treatment for Ventus. And that's it."

A silence followed as John processed the tale. "So what are you trying to get out of the story? Like, if you're presenting it to a newspaper, what is your title?"

" 'Peacekeepers Break Up Fight Between Students in Six's Reaping-Age School,' I guess. Or something about the Peacekeepers not breaking it up sooner, or something about the hostility between Lower District people and Career District people."

"If you go with the actual title you gave me, you can't start the story with all of that backstory. You need to get right to the point and talk about it later. Starting with Ventus's relationship with the bullies necessitates a title about preventing bullying in schools, or maybe a title about how authorities need to do more to prevent the hostility between kids growing up in different districts, but you might not even start with that backstory there in that case."

"But you do have to be careful with titling because you don't want to portray the pet districts in a bad light."

John smiled. "Correct, Nell. Either way, I think the place for this article is in a school paper. Why don't you go write it up and try to focus on presenting it in one way or another, or even multiple ways, as a journalism exercise. And I'll take a look at them and see what I think. Any other stories?" he asked as he got ready to go to what Nell presumed was a publishing meeting.

"Nothing exciting. Some grading debacle happened at our parent university today where a few professors got in big trouble."

"Do you know anything else about it?" John asked, quickly grabbing his notepad and pencil.

"Nah. It was just a rumor that got totally distilled by the time it got to me."

Nell couldn't entirely fathom why his father rushed out the door so quickly. She didn't find grading debacles interesting at all.

* * *

"Are you ready, Danira?" Sydnee asked as the two walked over towards Six's Reaping-Age School for the Drawing of Names after a morning pep talk/breakfast at Sydnee's house.

"I think so," Danira said. "It's both scary and exciting to be on our side of the Balls."

"Agreed. I felt the same way the first time. But you'll get through it."

"Have we decided who's taking which tribute?"

"We said that you'd take the easier one and I'd that the harder one."

"Right."

Six had decided to do the Drawing of Names a little differently than the other districts, as they were the only district where all of their children who were of age to be drawn were in the same school. They'd been given permission to move up their Drawing time, and broadcast it live from inside the school building during lunch. The two children whose names were drawn would say goodbye to their friends who attended school in the building, then be excused from their afternoon classes and be sequestered within the building. Their families would then be allowed to come say goodbye, and then they'd head to the Capitol. A student who chose not to attend school would be required to come to school on the day of the Drawing.

When Danira and Sydnee arrived at the school building, they were signed in and given visitor passes. Then, they were led by an administrator to the green room adjacent to the auditorium. They opened the door to find a familiar face already waiting for them: Sugar Willard, Six's secondary escort from the Fifth Quell! Sugar and Danira had spent a bit of time together in the Selection House, as Danira was the only Six girl picked by Garnet. Danira was perpetually annoyed by Sugar's squeaky voice, but the woman was quite nice; the escort could have been way worse.

"Hey, Sugar!" Danira exclaimed, giving her a brief hug. "What's up?"

"Not much. I'm good! How are you?"

"Doing well! I'm excited to be back in the Capitol to help out with the Events."

"It's gonna be fun! Hi Sydnee. How are you?"

"Doing OK. Excited to see how this all plays out!"

The three ladies chatted amicably until they heard the bell indicating that everyone had arrived in the auditorium. Sydnee, Danira, and Sugar made their way to the stage, where they were introduced to the student body by the school's principal as opposed to the mayor. As there wasn't as much pomp and circumstance for the Drawing of Names, it was clearly everyone's objective to get things done as quickly as possible; within three minutes of being on stage, Sugar was already picking a name from the ladies' bowl.

"Nell Edwards!"

Danira recognized the last name Edwards; she'd certainly read articles with her father's name on the byline. Nell had wavy blonde hair tied up in a ribbon to match her green, polka dotted dress and a lot of freckles across her delicate face. She was of average height, but had notably long legs, and was pretty skinny. Nell approached the stage, a mix of nerves and excitement, and took her place next to Danira, giving the older girl a look something between confusion as to why she stood there and the obligatory "Nice to meet you!" smile.

Sugar quickly approached the male bowl. "Ventus Gorva!" she announced.

Danira and Sydnee immediately locked eyes. The two certainly knew about the incident involving Ventus; in fact, the male tribute last year had been involved with some sort of assault on him. The two had seen the boy with messy brown hair and dark brown eyes walking around the district; his look of perpetual tiredness combined with his intimidating height of six feet and muscular build made him someone unapproachable on the street. Today, however, as he walked up to the stage, he looked pretty cheerful; he'd even cleaned up for the occasion, wearing a nice gray button up shirt and black dress slacks. He gave Nell a firm hand shake before taking his place next to her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your competitors, Nell Edwards and Ventus Gorva!" announced Sugar. The two were escorted into private rooms backstage by Sugar, with Sydnee and Danira following, leaving the principal to dismiss the students back to class.

"So what's your read?" Danira asked Sydnee.

"You take Nell. The two of you seem to be cut out of mostly the same mold, and I think you'll have fun working with her because it'll be a lot like working with yourself. Ventus is also going to be harder, so that's why I'll work with him. I don't know how the Capitol is going to handle him and his relationship with last year's male tribute, and I'm not sure how he's going to react to breaking out of his shell. It's the only way to win these Events, and Nell won't have a problem with that aspect of things."

"Sounds good to me."

* * *

 **OK, so I probably should have done Six's chapter first because their Drawing actually comes first chronologically in this story. Oh well – this whole doing them in order thing is gonna be imperfect anyway. We'll pretend. I'll at least try to make sure that the Drawings on the second day come after the Drawings on the first day. Whatever.**

 **Here are our Six tributes, Nell Edwards from Seahorse8 and Ventus Gorva from Bowserboy129! Standard questions for the chapter: What do you think about this pair? Who do you like better? How has Ventus changed since the incident? Will Nell talk everyone's ear off?**

 **A few little announcements before I sign off. First, there are going to be some potential tribute list tweaks. If your tribute made it in and I haven't PMed you something along the lines of "Yo! Where you at?" don't worry, your babies are still in the story; they just might be switching districts. Once the tribute's been introduced, there's obviously no switching it, but things might move around beforehand. Also, if you're interested in the cover art, feel free to shoot me a PM with a link to the image.**

 **Additionally, I've heard some concern regarding the scoring system for the Events. While I'm not going to reveal much now, I will tell you that it is a points-based system in which each submitter is not exclusively voting for one tribute, and that the final Victor will be determined by 30% submitter points and 70% a separate points system that I'll explain at a later date. Trust me when I say that it will be totally fair – I wouldn't write a story that wasn't.**

 **Thank you all again for your support, and I'll see you all next chapter!**

 **-goldie031**


	9. District Twelve

_Sharen Cantiano, 16  
Two Years, Seven Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"Sharen? Can I talk to you for a second?" called her uncle.

"What's up, Uncle Harold?" Sharen made her way into the common room of their house.

"I got a letter today from your father."

Sharen was a bit caught off guard. "I haven't heard from my father in years. Ever! What does he want from me now?"

"He wants you to come stay with him."

Sharen had to sit down. "Why? He left after I was born. My dad has never wanted to be my dad."

"I don't know," answered her mother's sister. "We just… got a letter from him."

The room fell silent. Sharen was a bit confused as to her father's intentions; despite only being fourteen, something in her told her that there was something behind this unusual invitation.

"Should I go?" asked Sharen.

Her uncle sighed. "You know, I think that you should go. I don't think you want to, but he is your father, and really your only blood relative."

"But he's a stranger to me. He left my mom, and he didn't even step up to take me in when she died. I have no reason to visit him!"

Her aunt took the letter from her uncle and read it again. "He lives in Eleven, though. That's not so far."

"But I don't want to!"

"How about this," offered her uncle. "We set up a trip for two weeks to Eleven somewhere in the middle of the summer, with ample time before school starts. You try it out. If it doesn't work, then you come back. It'll be entirely your choice. Does that sound OK?"

"Nerggh."

"Come on, Sharen."

"Fine," she groaned. "I guess I'll go. But you're setting it up."

Two weeks later, Sharen was sitting on the train, waiting through the very short ride from Twelve to Eleven. She still had no interest in seeing her father, but it was a bit better than it had been a few days prior. She assumed that nothing bad could come out of her time with her father. It still hurt her a little bit that he'd chosen not to raise her after her mother's death two years before. It was because he refused to take his daughter in that Sharen had to leave her home in Eleven and go to her family in Twelve; that was at least better than the community home. It wasn't that she didn't like living with her aunt and uncle. They were very nice to her, and Sharen enjoyed their company. But it was hard for her to adjust to living in a different district, with a different family, under different rules. At least they'd eased her in to things a little bit. But it was still tough, as any adjustment is. Now, despite how temporary this change might be, she'd have to change again. And Sharen didn't want to change her ways all that much for a man who had the opportunity to make her his daughter twice – once at her birth, once when her mother died – but didn't take either one.

So why now?

That question still nagged at Sharen. What was happening in her father's life that made him want to be with her now?

Before Sharen could even think about an answer, the train arrived in Twelve. Sharen steeled her nerves as she exited with her suitcase, searching for her father. She found him quite easily, as the two looked fairly similar. "Hi, Dad," she said as she approached him, giving him a shy wave.

"Hello, baby girl! It's so good to see you!"

"You too."

"Let's take you home." Fenwick took his daughter's suitcase out of her hand and led her through the streets of Eleven towards his home. The two made fairly pleasant small talk; Sharen was surprised at how nice and amicable the man was. She still didn't feel totally open to him being her father, but he was an OK man at least.

It was not ten minutes after they'd arrived at his home that Fenwick sat his daughter down and gave her a comprehensive overview of the rules and chores she'd be expected to follow and do while at his house. And if there was one thing Sharen hated more than anything, it was a lot of rules being laid out for her at once.

This man had no right to tell her what to do! He wasn't her father. He barely even felt like her family! And she wasn't even staying with him for a long time!

Sharen was most definitely not going to follow all of the rules.

* * *

 _Alder Howe, 12  
Two Weeks Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"You're it!" exclaimed Polly, Alder's best friend who'd moved from Eight right when inter-District travel was first allowed.

"Two-person tag is no fun!" complained Alder. The two ran through a pile of snow, spreading it all over the yards of the surrounding houses.

"That's just cause you always lose!"

"Hey, kids, watch it! You almost knocked over my cart!" screamed the crazy hot chocolate seller. But Polly and Alder just kept running through the streets, unafraid of anything that could possibly get in their way.

Suddenly, Alder stopped, causing Polly to slam into him. "Sorry, Polly, I gotta go."

"But Alder! I wanna play more!"

"Polly, today's Wednesday. I have to be home in time!"

"Fiiiiiine. See you later."

"Bye!"

As far as almost everything was concerned, Alder was a fairly typical boy. He went to school in Twelve's ordinary school system (as opposed to their Reaping Age Pre-Med Fast-Track school). He loved his parents, and had fun with his friends, and was just a generally good boy. But there was one thing that caught Alder's eye more than anything else in Twelve.

The garbage truck.

Nothing amused Alder more than sitting at the small window in his little house in Twelve every Wednesday and waiting for the big truck to come by. His parents had tried to get him out of the habit when Alder had turned ten, but to no avail; Alder Howe would forever be obsessed with trucks.

"Look, Mom, here it comes!" Alder exclaimed.

"Alder, honey, I know," said his mother, Heather. "It comes at the same time every single Wednesday."

"But it's so big and strong and cool! When I grow up, I wanna be as big and strong as that truck."

"Whatever makes you happy, baby."

Alder watched with bated breath as the truck pulled up in front of his house. It measured where the garbage can was, lowered its arms, dumped the trash into its back, and then placed the trash can down right where it started. It was the coolest thing! Alder was very happy.

Then, the truck drove away. Alder was always a little sad when the garbage truck left. But, he knew that it would come again at the same time the next week.

And that always made Alder very happy.

* * *

"This is fitting, Asha," Damien waxed poetic. "The oldest living Victor mentoring with one of the youngest. I think it's beautiful."

"Yeah, yeah," Asha smiled.

"Hey, hey, hey! An old man has the right to be a bit nostalgic every now and then, right?"

"Sure. If it makes you happy."

"Thank you, Asha."

Asha's Victory had brought a new life to Twelve. It had been 43 years between Victories when Asha finally came home, an amount of time during which all hope seems lost. Twelve was still celebrating her win six and a half years later, and it made Asha proud to know the difference she'd made in her district. With the redistricting, children in Twelve were becoming more nourished by the day, and especially because there were two Victors per Games now, Asha had a feeling that another would be following suit fairly soon.

When they arrived at the Justice Building, they were surprised to find Ellessa Trinket there. The Victors had been told that pretty much all of the escorts were either new, or wildly inexperienced. Ellessa had been the escort for Twelve since the Fourth Quell; she was anything but inexperienced. But she wasn't Ellessa. She was Evelynne Trinket, the third in a line of Twelve escorts from the Trinket family, and the spitting image of her mother.

"Hi," she said shyly. "I'm Evelynne."

"Hello, Evelynne! Welcome to the Twelve team! I'm Damien."

"It's nice to meet you."

If there's one thing that Evelynne was that her mother and grandmother weren't, it was shy. Damien attempted to make her feel more comfortable, but failed. Finally, to Damien's great joy, the Laurel twins arrived; they did a much better job of making Evelynne feel comfortable. After a little while, it was time to begin the Drawing.

The energy in Twelve was better than anyone had ever felt on a Reaping day. People were excited, for the first time; they could represent their district without risking death. Things looked promising.

The mayor gave a short introduction before turning the proceedings over to Evelynne. "We'll start with the ladies," she said quietly into the microphone. Evelynne cautiously made her way to the microphone before drawing a name. "Sharen Cantiano!"

The girl, who looked a bit tall and plump for her age, came out of the sixteen-year-old section, wearing a pale blue dress that didn't seem to quite fit her. She had tanned skin sprinkled with freckles, dark brown hair that seemed almost black, and hazel eyes. Sharen was actually laughing in surprise as she walked up to the stage, something Asha couldn't remember ever having seen before.

Once Sharen had gotten her bearings on stage, Evelynne drew the boy's name. "Alder Howe!" she called. An uncertain little boy in patched jeans and a blue shirt made his way out of the twelve-year-old section. He had sandy blonde hair and brown eyes, and looked just like the average twelve-year-old boy. Alder carefully mounted the stage, taking his place next to Sharen; coincidentally, the two seemed to match.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your first pair of competitors, Sharen Cantiano and Alder Howe!" announced Evelynne to the excited crowd.

"I'm actually kind of glad we drew a twelve-year-old," Delilah Laurel remarked to her fellow Victors as they made their way back into the Justice Building.

"Why?" asked her twin.

"Alder is adorable. He's gonna be a sponsor magnet. And they'll want to sponsor him, because they know he won't die; they're not throwing their money at someone that they may never see again."

* * *

 **Here are your District Twelve competitors, Sharen Cantiano courtesy of 66samvr and Alder Howe courtesy of LadyCordeliaStuart! What do you think of them? Will Alder get to see more trucks? How did Sharen's time with her father affect her?**

 **I might have a few slots opening up for the story. If you're interested, please shoot me a PM. I will not be accepting a third competitor if someone already has two, so please bear that in mind. I'd like to get some new submitters involved, so if you don't have a competitor yet, you may (but this isn't definite) get priority.**

 **I don't know why, but the last chapter didn't gain a ton of traction. Is there a time in your time zone that works best for you? I'm EST, so bear that in mind.**

 **I'll catch y'all next time, most likely in Eleven!**

 **-goldie031**


	10. District Eleven

_Mallory Farro, 15  
Fifteen Years, Two Months, Twenty-Two Days Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

The sounds of crying broke through the tense air in the delivery room. Everyone seemed to relax a little bit; doctors always stressed out about deliveries, and especially when two field overseers were the parents, it was incredibly important that everyone survived. Thankfully, everyone was alive and breathing, and Quinoa and Teff Farro were now the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl.

Well, proud might not be the word for it.

As the doctors left to "give the couple some quality time with their child," the very young couple stared at their daughter in disgust. If either of them had known that their one night of fun would result in a child, they would never have done it. They simply did not desire this thing.

"So what are we going to do with it?" asked Quinoa.

"I don't know."

"This child is your fault, anyway."

"What do you mean it's my fault? You gave me pleasure!"

"And did you want the pleasure?"

"Yes."

"So there you are."

They paused for a moment. "She at least needs a name, I guess," Teff suggested.

"It doesn't deserve a name! We don't even need to keep her. We can give it to the Community Home and let them deal with it."

"And let her mingle with the common folk? No. It'll soil our reputation with the other overseers?"

"Maybe someone else can take it in? I don't want to raise a child."

Teff carefully took the baby out of his wife's hands. They didn't want a child, but Teff at least believed that a child had to be cared for; his wife, on the other hand, was completely heartless when it came to children. Teff didn't have any particular care for this child, or any child; rather, he was hopelessly devoted to and in love with Quinoa, and so if she didn't want the kid, there would be no kid in their lives. But at least if he took the baby from her, she couldn't _hurt_ the baby.

"Who else is gonna take her? We live near two other overseer families. One has seven children under twelve, including newborn triplets – why they're doing that to themselves I have no idea – and the other already had all their kids fly the coop. And the other overseers are probably too far away. There's no way anyone will take in our child."

"The child." Quinoa groaned. "I take it that we have no other choice but to actually take in the damn thing?"

"Yes, Quinoa. That appears to be the case."

Quinoa looked at the lumpy blanked in her husband's arms. "Maybe we can wait to decide for a little bit," she grumbled. "Worst comes to worst, it'll be a good thing on which to get out our anger."

"She needs a name."

In Eleven, the birth parents had to name the child, regardless of whether they were going to keep the child or not; if the child was adopted and the name was changed, the birth first name had to be included or referred to in the new name. Now, Quinoa and Teff hadn't found out the gender of their baby before she was born. They'd just kind of hoped that the baby would die somewhere along the way so they wouldn't have to deal with it (to their chagrin, Quinoa had the healthiest pregnancy her doctor had seen in years) or get an abortion, which cost money they didn't want to spend (not to mention travel to either the Capitol or Twelve for it to be done in the safest way). So they hadn't even considered the fact that they would need to give the child a name. They'd floated around one or two boys' names (at least a boy could be remotely useful in the fields), but never in a serious manner. And now they were stuck with a girl. What in the world could they call her?

"So, grab a name book! Think of something! I want nothing else to do with it."

Teff put the baby down in her bassinette and grabbed a book from the shelf: _The Ultimate Guide to Every Name Ever, Volume M._ He opened the book and started proposing names to his wife.

"Mabel?"

"No."

"Macey?"

"No."

"Mackenzie?"

"No."

"Madeline?"

"Let me see that," Quinoa snapped, grabbing the book out of her husband's hand. She started to read through the names, until she came to one that caught her eye. "Mallory."

"Mallory?"

"Yeah. It means unfortunate or ill-fated. And this child is certainly unfortunate for us. Plus, it's really early in the book."

"Don't we want to give her a name with a better meaning, so that when someone adopts her she doesn't have such a bad omen following her?"

"What does that matter? She's going to have a much bigger impact on our lives than we'll ever have on hers. Because of that, we get to choose her name! And I choose Mallory."

Teff wasn't thrilled with his wife's decision. He also did not want to argue with her, lest she decide not to have sex with him once they got out of the hospital.

So Mallory Farro it was.

* * *

 _Crixus Anjou, 18  
Five Years, Seven Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"Crixus. Crixus! I need to talk to you."

"Coming, Mom," groaned Crixus.

"Don't use that tone with me!"

Crixus rolled his eyes. As the past few weeks and months had been passing, he'd recognized that he'd wanted to listen to his mother less, but failed to do anything to change it. She'd just been making so many changes – new husband, two new babies – that were hard for Crixus to get used to.

And he didn't even know if she loved him.

Sure, she acted like a good mom before she met his step-father. She got him presents and frankly spoiled him rotten. That probably contributed to the lazy part of his nature that made him not interested at all in acting to change things. But she'd never made an emotional effort to bond with her son. Crixus couldn't remember a time where she'd hugged him, or even when she'd said, "I love you." Affection that wasn't backed by emotion never felt genuine to Crixus.

Crixus swung his feet out of bed and trudged to the kitchen, where his whole family was sitting around the kitchen table. His younger sister, two-year-old Clementine, was tickling the feet of Peggy, the new baby, which didn't seem to be getting any reaction out of the littlest one. His mother and step-father sat at the head of the table, looking madly in love with each other.

It made Crixus sick.

Once Crixus had taken a seat, his mother began to talk. "So, kids, Dad and I have something important to tell you. Peggy is going to be a big sister!"

"Big sister?" asked Clementine. "Wazzat mean?"

"It means that mommy is going to have a baby."

"Really? New baby? New baby!" exclaimed Clementine. She hopped off of her chair and ran to give her mother a giant hug. "Thank you, mommy!"

At Clementine's outburst, Peggy burst into tears. "Oh, Peggy," cooed the step-father. "Come on, baby. Let's go play."

"Can I come?"

"Yes. You can come play with us too. Let's go, little ones."

Once the step-father had led the girls out of the room, Crixus's mother turned to him. "You don't look happy, Crixus."

Crixus snapped, "Of course I'm not happy, Mom!"

"But why not? I know you've always liked being around kids."

"I don't like kids," he grumbled.

"Yes, you do. You always tell stories to them. You're so good with them. Come on, what's really wrong?"

"My life is over," the boy lamented.

"Crixus, you're not even fourteen yet. And you're not in Reaping age. You have a good life and a good family. What could possibly be wrong?"

Crixus felt the anger bubbling up inside of him. Something seemed bad about it, but he didn't want to fight it. "You're having all these kids. It was perfect when it was just us. But now it's not perfect anymore."

"But honey," said his mom, "our family is so much better! With Dad around now, I can provide for you in a way that I never could."

"I don't like it this way! I want it the way it was."

"Crixus. Don't you appreciate how happy my husband makes me? I can be a better mom this way."

"You've never been a good mom."

"I have worked my hardest after your father's death to care for you. I have given you everything you could ever want in life. It has been a struggle. Do you not appreciate what I've done?"

Crixus's anger hit a fever pitch. "You don't say you love me. You don't kiss me. You didn't even hug me. Ever! I don't understand how you can't see why I'm mad. You're just a materialistic wench!"

The fight escalated. And continued to escalate.

To the point that Crixus slapped his mother across the face.

* * *

"How are you feeling, Ivie?" asked her mother, as she carefully fishtail braided her older daughter's hair.

"A bit nervous, Mommy. What if my competitor is older than me?"

"Honey, the odds of that happening are slim. Everyone has five slips, so there are more slips for people younger than you than people older than you. I think you'll be fine." Mrs. Mark tied a pale pink hair ribbon at the base of her daughter's braid. "Come here, honey. Give me a hug. It's all gonna be OK."

When Ivie's mother was a teenager, she'd been involved with a gang in District Eleven. She'd been given multiple citations for gang activity but had never actually been punished. Unfortunately for her, that fact was uncovered when the Statues system was introduced; consequentially, she was given a three-year statute for her children. It was because of that that Ivie, her oldest of four children, was eligible, and was Reaped in her last year of eligibility. Mrs. Mark was devastated. She considered it a miracle that Ivie returned home, and redevoted herself to caring for her children. Since she returned, Ivie had become closer than ever with her mother, and always yielded to letting her mom when she wanted to do her daughter's hair.

"What if Vine or Moss gets drawn? Or Honie?"

"Well, you'll be there to look after them. Honie is too young anyway, and Vine and Moss are boys. You'll just have to deal with them."

"But we have no male mentor. I might mentor the boy."

"So just cross your fingers. Now, come on. We're gonna be late."

The Mark family quickly finished getting ready, then made the short trek over to the Justice Building for the Drawing. Ivie said goodbye to her family, then went backstage to check in with the other Victors.

"Good afternoon, everyone," she said as she came in.

"Hey, Ivie! How's it going?" Beckia asked, giving her mentee a hug.

"I'm doing well. A bit nervous, but I'm OK."

"You'll be fine," Skylar Lyman reassured the girl. "I'm here to help, as is Beckia, and they're at least letting Quiinn come with us to the Capitol even though he can't mentor. So he'll end up helping."

"It's gonna be great," Quiinn added.

The reassurance didn't completely help Ivie, but she smiled and nodded at her counterparts anyway.

"Is it the same escort as we had for the Games?"

"No, there's actually a brand new one this year," Skylar said. "Some of the districts have mentors they had for the Selection Games a few years back, but we don't." At that exact moment, their escort walked into the green room. "Ivie, this is Fox Lombardi."

Fox threw Ivie off a little bit; she'd been told that the new mentors would be fairly inexperienced, which she took to mean young. But Fox was not young; rather, they were 56. They had orange skin except at the very ends of their arms (and Ivie also assumed their legs), a shaggy mop of brown hair, and green eyes. Ivie still wasn't really used to the craziness of Capitolites, so even this threw her off a little, but she still gave Fox a polite wave hello. Fox responded with a greeting so energetic that it almost knocked Ivie off of her feet.

"You know, I think I've mellowed out since I was younger," Fox remarked. "I feel like I have less energy than I used to. It's kinda sad."

 _If that's less energetic,_ thought Ivie, _I'm kinda scared about what they used to be like._

After a while, it was time to begin the drawing. Fox led the group of Victors to the stage; after a few procedural things, Fox drew a slip from each bowl, then took her place in front of the balls.

"First, our female competitor: Mallory Farro!"

Ivie breathed a sigh of relief when the girl she would mentor with Skylar emerged from the section of fifteen-year-olds. She was certainly from an upper-class background: Mallory was white, and fairly pale at that, with gorgeous blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a cute button nose. She was average height and appeared a little underweight, and seemed to walk with a limp on her right leg. Mallory was wearing a plain white shift dress, and wore an expression of pleasant surprise as she walked to the stage. Mallory stood next to Ivie, giving the young Victor a pleasant smile.

"And now, our male competitor: Crixus Anjou!"

As soon as the boy emerged from the eighteen-year-old section, Ivie knew that the two representatives of Eleven were vastly different people; while Mallory looked excited to go to the Capitol for the Events, Crixus just looked deflated. All in all, though, Crixus was a handsome man. He had fairly dark skin, though it wasn't quite black, dark hair, ice blue eyes, and a strong jawline. The tall and lanky man had not dressed up for the occasion, wearing jogger pants, leather work boots, and an odd, black-ish shirt. Crixus mounted the steps and stood next to Mallory, towering over her by nearly a foot.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your representatives for the First Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events, Mallory and Crixus, are ready for take-off!"

Suddenly, Ivie had a feeling there was much more to Fox than she already knew. And she wasn't sure she wanted to find out about it.

* * *

 **Here we are with our next pair of competitors, Mallory from DaughterofTigris and Crixus from SexyBonBon! What do you think of them? How did their different upbringings affect them? Will they bond because of their relationship with their parents?**

 **You may notice that there are a few changes to the competitor list on my profile. I'm working on finalizing all of that, so hopefully by next chapter we'll be settled in for the long run. Fingers crossed!**

 **Next, we'll be moving into District Eight! Catch ya then!**

 **-goldie031**


	11. District Eight

_Serenity Capiere, 13  
Seven Months, Three Weeks Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"Serenity, can you come downstairs?"

"Phrase it more nicely, Mom!"

"Serenity, please come downstairs."

"Better."

Serenity came downstairs and took her seat on the couch, sitting with perfect posture like the slight brat she was. Her time in One had treated her well, so well that Serenity had turned into a bit of a princess, something that had only been amplified when her brother got married and moved out. But why shouldn't the world revolve around Serenity? She was young, she was supple, and she was well-built. Serenity had everything going for her. It was her life; everyone else was just living in it.

"What is happening that is so important that I had to stop what I was doing?" asked Serenity.

"Well." Her mother took a deep breath. She knew full-well of her daughter's tendencies, so this would have to be very delicately said. "Your father and I received some bad news yesterday. Our visa to move was not renewed."

"What do you mean?"

"So, when we moved from Eight to here with the clothing factory, we received a temporary work visa. It's kind of like an approval to move around and do work in another district that we needed because there are so many rebels in Eight."

"But we're not rebels, so there shouldn't be a problem. There shouldn't have been a problem. What does this mean?"

"Well, it essentially means that we're going to be getting new jobs helping out in factories in Eight. We'll be moving there in a few weeks."

"No!"

Serenity's dad took a deep breath. "Serenity, I wish we could do something to keep our lives here. We know that it makes our little princess very happy to be in such a pretty district. I think it was just a fluke with our visas, so we'll try to work on it, but for now, the worst thing we can do is try to fight it by not moving. If we get caught here in One when we're supposed to be in Eight, there's a fluke chance it could end up being viewed as treasonous, and that would put you under a Statute. And we all know that that would be bad."

"But I don't WANT to move."

"Serenity," said her mother gently, "sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do."

"But I've never had to before! Why now? Is it just because I'm technically of Reaping age now?"

"Come on, dear. This could be a brand new start for you! Imagine all of the awesome possibilities!"

"No. I don't want to move to Eight!"

"Do you have a reason?" asked her mom.

"No. I don't need a reason to not want to do something!"

Serenity's father decided that it was time to put his foot down. "Serenity, you need to stop complaining. We are moving to One and that's what's happening. You can either argue with us and have us drag you along or you can agree and pack your stuff up. That's final."

"Ugh!" Serenity exclaimed. She stormed off to her room and flopped down on her bed in a rage. Why did her life always have to suck! Nothing went her way, despite the fact that that was the way the world was supposed to work.

Oh, to be Serenity.

* * *

 _Sage Davidson, 17  
Seven Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

Sage's leg bounced nervously as he rode the train to District Eight. There was a lot weighing on his mind as he traveled; he was, after all, being asked to do something more important than he could have ever fathomed five years prior. He knew as well that he was being put into a situation reserved for someone with slightly more life experience than him, but he'd been told that it would be better for someone of Drawing age to be present in the circumstances.

" _Normally, we would wait a little longer before doing this, but we need someone in Eight, and you're just the candidate," the woman said. "You're the only person we have left who won't age out of the Drawing before the Events start, and we're hoping that if there's a positive opinion from someone with connections in Eight, it'll have a good impact on the rebels there as a whole."_

" _What exactly is my job again?"_

" _It's very simple. Make friends with the other people around your age in Eight. When the announcement for the Events happens, talk them up. They're a good thing. But don't talk about them until that announcement happens – we don't want it to seem that you know something from the Capitol or that you are psychic. Neither is good for your reputation."_

The weight of the mission on Sage's shoulders felt very heavy. But the woman had reiterated so many times that she had complete faith in him, so all Sage had to do was have the same faith in himself.

Sage wasn't so optimistic.

When the train arrived, Sage disembarked and started to look for a woman named Kira Mazda. Apparently, she was a contact in Eight of the organization, but that was all Sage knew.

"Hi there!" a woman said brightly. "Are you Sage?"

"Yes," Sage said. "That's my name."

"Hi, I'm Kira. It's nice to meet you!"

"You as well," Sage replied shyly.

"Do you need help with your bag?"

"It's just a backpack. I got it."

The two fell silent. "You know, you look a lot like the kid from the 130th Games, Mint Johnson."

" _What do I do if they ask about my appearance?"_

" _Well, you are taller, so there's that. We'll give you some freckles and change your eyes from hazel to brown. You can say that he's your cousin."_

"Mint was my cousin," replied Sage. "It was a shock to all of us when he was Reaped; we didn't even know he was under a statute!"

"Oh, that's so sad." The conversation fell silent, so Kira changed the subject. "Tell me about your family."

" _Here's a dossier with your familial and personal history in it. It should feel familiar to you. You have to have it memorized before we leave, and we will test you."_

 _The test had never come._

"My parents are named Leaf and Lillian. They're really great parents and people, especially Leaf. After Mint died, my uncle Rainer fell into deep depression and my mo… aunt Petal committed suicide. Leaf took in Rainer despite Mint's history, so I've lived with my uncle for a while now. Admittedly, Lillian is a bit more wary about things, but she loves Mama, so she deals with it. I also have a big brother named Colby and an adopted little brother named Sid."

Kira smiled approvingly. "That's very nice. Did you work in Eleven?"

"For some time in a grain field, yes. Leaf encouraged me to because…" Sage dropped his voice to a whisper; something in him trusted Kira, though he couldn't tell why, but he still didn't want to be too public about what he was going to say. "Because it helps me with my depression."

Kira nodded solemnly. "That's quite good for you to know about yourself. I'll try to find you something to do like that here, but I'm not sure what."

"Thank you."

By this time, they'd arrived at Kira's house. It was modest, but it felt like a home to Sage. Kira let him in first, then securely closed the door behind her with a bang that startled the boy.

"Now I'll tell you something about me. I too am a member of the organization, specifically the one overseeing your mission, in a way, and you've passed your test. You almost messed up and called your aunt Petal your mom, though. Stick with your story – your similar appearance to Mint combined with the fact that Mint mentioned the names of his parents in his interview will make really, really savvy rebels here in Eight very suspicious."

"But am I ready to go out and socialize with the kids my age?"

"I think so."

* * *

Rose and Neelee sat anxiously in the green room, waiting anxiously for the escort to come. They knew that there would be nothing more important than an escort who could pacify their competitors. Neelee and Rose were aware of a few eligible kids who were against the Drawing for the same reasons that the rebels were: because they were from the Capitol and therefore were bad by nature. If one of them was drawn, an escort who could calm them down would be vital; these Events needed to go well for Eight so that the district as a whole would warm up to the idea and maybe stop rebelling as a whole.

Suddenly, they heard a knock at the door. "Hello? Can I come in?" said a familiar voice.

"Yes," replied Neelee. The door opened to the very welcome figure of Rhea Yorker, Twelve's secondary escort from the 125th Games. Despite her flamboyant and literally fishy appearance, she was recognized by many of the Victors as someone reliable and down-to-earth, plus someone who wanted to be invested in the lives of her tributes. There was nobody better to work with in this situation than Rhea.

"You don't know how happy we are to see you," Rose admitted.

"Really?" Rhea was flattered.

"Yeah." Neelee and Rose proceeded to give Rhea a brief explanation of the rebel situation in eight; they told her just enough for her to understand the urgency of the situation but not enough to actually tell her everything about the rebel cause in Eight lest the wrong information get passed on to the Capitol. By the end, Rhea understood the extra element of her role: potentially, she needed to both represent the Capitol and convince two Capitol-haters to not hate it.

So much for an easier job than escorting the Games.

When they heard the chime of the clock in the Justice Building, Rhea, Neelee, and Rose went out to the stage. That was when it really struck Rose how few kids were eligible. The pens in use for the Events were the same as they used for the Games; in the summer, the pens were packed full, but today, there were maybe twenty-five kids of each gender, wandering around within the ropes like lost sheep. The other big difference was that today, to Rose's chagrin, the mayor wasn't even there; that meant that the responsibilities of conducting the Drawing would all fall to Rhea.

"Hi everyone!" she exclaimed. "I say we just do this quickly so you can all get back to your lives, yeah? Good. Ladies first." Rhea drew a name. "Serenity Capiere."

Nobody moved.

"Is there a Serenity Capiere here?"

Suddenly, a girl in the thirteen-year-old section threw a complete conniption fit. "No!" she screamed. "I don't want to go and you can't make me!" Rose wasn't sure what made Serenity so volatile. Maybe it was because her appearance didn't fit in Eight; rather, she looked like a typical girl from One. Serenity had honey-blonde hair, gray-green eyes, and porcelain skin; she stood at a pretty short four foot eleven, and still had not lost her baby fat. By the time the Peacekeepers got her to the stage, her gray shirt with black lace and knee-length black skirt were all disheveled, and one of her black knee-length socks was rolled down all the way to her ankle. Serenity stood next to Neelee, very much pouting and unhappy to be there.

"Is she from…" Rose whispered to Neelee.

"Not that I can tell."

"Good."

"But she might still need Rhea's support."

Rhea moved to draw a name from the mens' bowl. "Sage Davidson," she announced.

More than anything else, the boy coming out of the seventeen-year-old section looked confused. Rose immediately felt a familiar feeling from the Games when she saw a tribute like Sage get Reaped. He was tall and skinny, with dark skin, brown eyes, short black hair, and a few freckles across his cheeks; meaning, it seemed that he had a real shot at winning the Games. But these weren't the Games – they were the Events. So who knew if his build would help him? Sage was at least making a good first impression. He looked very put-together in his black dress shirt and pants and his blue tie.

"Any rebel ties to him?" Rose whispered.

"I know nothing about his background. So let's hope for the best."

* * *

 **Hey friends! I'm back with District Eight! A huge thank you to EllaRoseEverdeen for Serenity, and AmericanPi for Sage, though I have taken Sage to a whole new level. A few questions: Is Serenity more than a spoiled brat? What is Sage's organization, and is it related to Henley? Who is Kira, and is she actually important?**

 **An acknowledgment: I know that there are lots of competitors in the story that have moved around. This is either a great reflection of the new culture in Panem, a reflection of all of the changes in industries and how that affected the families, bad luck with the drawing, or a convenient device for me to be able to move tributes around to backup districts. Take your pick.**

 **ALERT ALERT ALERT TIME FOR THE FIRST CHECKIN!**

 **Please send me whether or not your competitor would be interested in romance. Additionally, if you have not already sent me your competitor's birthday, please send that to me.**

 **Next time, we jump up to District Three! Can't wait to see y'all then!**

 **-goldie031**


	12. District Three

_Alexei Roth, 13  
Exactly Two Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

Alexei took a seat at his desk and flicked on his light. He'd wanted to write this letter a while ago, but really hadn't had the time. He knew that he had to write a thank-you-note for the birthday card he'd received yesterday, however, and so decided to take the opportunity to make a longer letter out of it. He took a piece of paper and a pen out of his desk and began to write.

 _Dear Ramona,_

 _Thank you so much for the kind birthday note! I conveniently received it yesterday on my birthday, which was either planned very well on your part or complete coincidence. I'm so glad that we've been able to keep in touch even though we now leave in different districts. What an amazing evolution in Panemian culture!_

 _School is very good, thank you for asking! I really enjoy all of my coding classes. We code something like seven hours a day, five days a week, which has been good and bad. On the one hand, I love coding, and it's really fun for me to get to learn so much more about something that I'm really passionate about. We started with HTML, Javascript, and Python, and soon we'll move towards C and C++, which is when we'll really get into the practical aspects of coding. That'll be really exciting!_

 _The bad thing is that I don't have as much time as I would like for my hobbies. I miss having time to practice piano and trumpet, and there aren't really any extracurriculars, so I can't play in a band. Not that there are very many kids who know how to play instruments, because I'm in school with a bunch of complete nerds, but I'm looking to at least find someone who can play with me. I've also heard that I get more free time once we get past the mandatory intro-level courses. Not that everyone in the intro-level courses necessarily needs them, but it's a good way to make sure that everyone is well versed in the specific languages that the program requires._

 _I met this really cool girl in my year from Five named Sinsya. Well, she's not really in my year. I'm in the computer science track, which starts in the summer; Sinsya is in the Early University program, which she started last winter. Plus, she's so smart that she's two years younger than most of the other people in her year. (The Early University program usually starts at 15 or 16, while the CompSci kids start at 12.) I don't see her all that much because we're on two different, very advanced tracks, but she's nice, I guess._

 _I also have actual friends in Three! They're not in the program, but I still see them at least once a week. There's this kid Sebastian, who's just a really nice kid, and his older sister, Ivy. They're the kids in my host family, so I stay with them when I need a night away from the dorm or when we have off days. Seb is friends with this other kid named Ryland, who's really funny and fun to be around._

 _Oh! I also learned about my Events eligibility this week. They were considering having me be eligible in Ten, because I won't have seven months by January, but I basically said that it wouldn't make sense at all because my primary residence is in Three and will be for at least another three to four years. I wouldn't want someone who isn't from my district to represent me, so I don't think it's fair for me to represent Ten if I don't live there. It would be fair for me to represent Three. Thankfully, the Games Fairness Council agreed with me, so I'm in Three. That means there's no chance that we'd be district partners. Oh, well._

 _How is everyone back in Ten? I miss Mom and Dad and all my siblings – tell them I say hi. Also, make sure to say hi to all of our friends, especially Felix. I miss Felix a lot._

 _Hopefully I'll be able to come home for a few days in December or January to see you, except maybe not because I don't know if I can leave Three so close to the Drawing of Names. Either way, Hopefully I'll see you soon!_

 _Yours truly,_

 _Alexei_

Alexei put the pen down and smiled.

"Now, how do I get this to Ramona?"

* * *

 _Sinsya Powers, 14  
Two Weeks Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"That was quite the day!" exclaimed Sinsya as she and her roommate made their way back to the dorms.

"You're telling me," replied her friend, Xella. "I feel like winter break did me more harm than good. Like I know we got back last week, but I'm still not ready to be back in school."

"I know. But we can mope about it or we can tackle the new semester head on!"

"Nergh."

The two kept walking through the crowded maze of hallways until they finally arrived at their dorm. Xella threw her bag down and flopped on her bed like a fish. "AAAAA. I just want to go to sleep. But we have so much work!"

"I know. That's university for you. Come on, let's start with math. That'll at least be easy."

"Speak for yourself!"

"It's just Calc 2."

"Sinsya, it's _Calc 2!_ "

"Well, you're an History Pre-Major."

"And you're a Math Pre-Major."

"Touché."

After a quick snack, the two girls got to work; they stayed focused in silence for about an hour until a loud PING sounded in the building.

"Is that the list-serv chime?" asked Xella.

"Yep," groaned Sinsya.

"I've never heard it before. Like, I knew it was a thing, but I can't remember ever hearing it."

"I guess they only use it when they really need people to read a list-serv email. If they used it every time they sent a mass email out nobody would pay attention to it."

The two girls pulled out their tablets and checked their school emails. At the top of their inboxes was the email that was the reason for the list-serv chime: a mass email regarding protocol for the Drawing of Names in two weeks' time.

"What's your opinion on the Events?" asked Sinsya.

"They kinda scare me," Xella admitted. "I don't like the idea of being so far away from home."

"But you're away from home now," Sinsya pointed out. "You've been away from home since August, basically."

"But I feel at home here by now."

"So you'll feel at home in the Capitol too, if you get picked."

Xella shook her head violently. "I still don't want to go."

"Why not?"

"I don't trust them. Remember, I was under the Thirteen statute up until just now. If they wanted to, they could easily draw me to kill me."

Sinsya put down her tablet and turned to face her friend, who was curled up in a ball on her bed. "Xella, has Ruby done anything in your lifetime where she went back on her word?"

"No, but history definitely tends to repeat itself. I don't trust that Ruby won't follow in her grandfather's footsteps."

"You have to judge people based on what they've done, not based on what they might do. I trust that Ruby will keep to her word when it comes to these Events. And don't you trust me?"

"Yes, but you're not Ruby. And you can't necessarily know what she thinks or what she's going to do. Everything is notoriously unpredictable in the Capitol and I can't do it!"

"Come here, Xella." Sinsya gave her close friend a hug. "The odds are so much in your favor here in Three. Thanks to the school, we have close to the highest, if not the highest, number of eligible kids. And everyone has their name in five times. I really wouldn't worry if I were you."

"I guess."

"Everything is going to be just fine. And if not, you being picked will have happened for a reason. All you have to do is tell me what that is when you get back."

* * *

Edison and Byte sat together awkwardly in the green room. It had been about two months since Byte had learned that Edison was dating her younger sister, Bit and the awkwardness had not subsided. This was, admittedly, mostly the fault of the older Harper sister. Byte was a fiercely protective older sister, so while she wasn't completely opposed to the idea of Edison and Bit dating, she was still a bit worried for Bit's sake about dating a Victor. She knew full-well how difficult the impact of the Games could be on one's family, and she didn't want Bit to have to deal with it on both sides.

"Edison? Byte? We're ready in five," said the mayor.

"Do we have an escort?" Byte asked.

"Yes. They should be here momentarily."

At just that moment, the escort walked in. "Hello," he said. "My name is Andrew Chaff."

Byte thought the man looked oddly familiar, but with a name like Chaff, he couldn't possibly be from Three. He seemed nice, at least, and someone outgoing enough to work with the competitors.

"All right, friends," said the mayor. "Let's move to the stage for the Drawing. The advanced CS and Early U programs are on a very tight timetable today."

When they reached the stage, Byte and Edison took their places behind the microphone. Andrew instinctively approached it, and after a moment's hesitation, began the drawing by choosing a name from the girls' bowl. "Sinsya Powers."

The fourteen-year-old section parted around a girl with straight black hair and crystal blue eyes. She had a fairly nice build, and was on the taller end of her age. She was completely emotionless, which Byte took as a good sign; however, a girl in the crowd had audibly, even loudly, burst into tears. Sinsya gave Honey, then Byte, what she intended to be a polite nod but what came out as a little more of a glare.

"Now the boys." Andrew drew a slip a bit more boldly this time. "Alexei Roth."

A cute little boy wearing a blue shirt, jeans, and red sneakers came out of the section of thirteen-year-olds. He had short, honey-blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles that could only come from spending a lot of time in the sun. Alexei looked shocked, and even somewhat embarrassed, as he made his way to the stage.

Andrew quickly drew the Drawing to a close. He then led the two competitors backstage, Byte and Edison falling behind. When the two kids had landed in their goodbye rooms, Byte and Edison grabbed their suitcases, said quick goodbyes to their families, and made their way to the train. Byte pretended not to notice that Edison had kissed her sister on the cheek.

"Hey Byte? Edison?"

"Yes, Andrew?"

"I just got a message from the Capitol that you're going to want to know about. It says that Alexei's friend Ramona has also been drawn; however, we're not to tell him because they want to have a camera on them for their reunion before the chariot rides."

"So why did they bother to tell us about it if we're not supposed to tell Alexei?"

"I don't know."

Byte rolled her eyes. "Sometimes, I just don't understand the Capitol."

* * *

 **Here we are with Three! A bit of a shorter chapter this time, but I hope you enjoyed our first look at Sinsya from District 9 Tribute and Alexei from Winter's Writing. Any big thoughts? How do you think this pair will do?**

 **If you have not yet sent in your FIRST CHECK-IN, check last chapter for information about it. Thank you all so much for your support, and I'll see you next time in either Four or Seven (haven't decided yet).**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**


	13. District Four

_Solomon Mikkelson, 18  
A Year and a Half Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"You nervous?" Owen asked his boyfriend.

"Yeah."

Sol and Owen sat on the beach in Four, allowing the tide to lick their toes. The magnitude of the day was not lost on either of them; that was why they'd chosen to spend it at the ocean, Owen's favorite place in the district and Sol's favorite place as a result. There wasn't a need to talk anymore; all that could be said had been said.

"Why, though? There are so many people with slips in the bowl."

"But I don't have the security of a volunteer."

For the second time in the past five years, Four's Academy had not selected a male volunteer. It was unclear whether the reasoning for that was because the trainees weren't as good, the trainers weren't as good, that there was a baby boom of first males in a family in those particular years, or because the children of Four were simply losing interest in training for the Games; either way, it was a little bit concerning for the Academy. The previous three times that no male Volunteers were selected, no male ended up volunteering; two of those times, a child under fourteen was Reaped and killed in the bloodbath. (The third time was the Fifth Quell.) For Sol, this was especially nerve-wracking. Because Reaping Statutes were based on one's _biological_ parents, not on one's _adopted_ parents, Sol had a combined six years of Statutes thanks to his biological mom and dad, meaning that, at age sixteen, this was his fifth year eligible for the Reaping.

That was, in his opinion, the flaw in the Statutes system.

"You _might_ not have the security of a volunteer."

"What? Owen, are you considering volunteering?"

"I mean, yeah. The top kid in my year is a shoo-in to volunteer; if I want a shot, I've got to do it now."

Sol was dumbfounded. "You're my boyfriend, and you've never told me this. Plus, you're like 35th in your year. There's no way this works. How long has this been a consideration?"

"Since they announced that they weren't having a male volunteer this year. But let's not think about it now. Let's enjoy the ocean."

"OK."

The two sat cuddled up with each other until it was time to get ready for the Reaping. Even though most people weren't eligible, everyone was still required to attend the Reapings, and everyone of age was checked into the pens just in case they were to volunteer.

Like that would ever happen.

Sol kind of tuned out everything that was happening around him; the Reaping was long and boring, and he didn't feel a need to listen to it. He was so tuned out that he didn't notice the circle forming around him in the section of sixteen-year-olds.

"Is there a Sol Mikkelson?"

Sol's heart stopped. He carefully made his way to the aisle, and approached the stage, only stopped by a familiar voice yelling, "I volunteer!"

Sol could not remember anything that happened between then and the moment that he was in Owen's goodbye room in tears. "Owen, why would you volunteer for me?"

"Because I sure as heck have a better shot than you. You have no training."

"But you're… I… you… I don't want to lose you!" The two shared a firm embrace. "Owen, you have to fight as hard as you can to get back. You need to. I need you."

"I'll do what I can," Owen replied cagily.

And the Peacekeepers came and took Sol out.

Sol spent the next week almost exclusively in the Pavus household, watching the events unfold with Owen's parents; while he loved his family, they couldn't quite understand the stress Sol was going through, and so he chose to stay with those who did understand. They watched as Owen was presented as Triton for the chariot rides, as he received a high score for a non-Career, as he had a strong showing during the interviews. Were it not for the fact that the Career pack seemed to be the tributes from the Capitol, One, and Two for that year, for the fact that there were 30 tributes thanks to the extra Thirteen statutes, and for the fact that a surprising number of tributes were under fifteen, it would be a totally normal Games for a Four male. But throughout the whole process, Owen seemed… not like himself. Sol couldn't quite place why, but he knew that Owen wasn't right.

And, though he couldn't understand his boyfriend's motive, he figured out why Owen didn't seem like himself when Owen stepped off of his pedestal before the countdown ended.

* * *

 _Amazon Brown, 18  
Eleven Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

Amazon woke up feeling sick to her stomach. She darted to the bathroom and vomited the previous night's dinner in the toilet.

"Amazon, are you OK?" called her mom as she ran up the stairs.

"Yeah. I threw up again."

"Is that the third time this week you've thrown up?"

"Yeah." Amazon sat with her back propped up on the tub. "Oh, I don't feel well."

"Come on, baby." Amazon's mother helped her daughter up and guided her back into her room. "Do you want any soup or toast? I can't make much because I do have to go to work and I have to take Sphinx to school, but I can prep some things for you and bring them up for you for later in the day if you'd like that."

"Yeah."

For a mother who didn't usually act like a typical housewife, Tatiana Williams could kick it into gear when she needed to. Within minutes, Amazon's night-table was holding seven pieces of toast, three bowls of soup, four full water bottles, and every kind of medicine in the closet; a trash can was carefully placed right next to her bed. "All right, baby. If things go further south, call me, but today is a really important day too. Do you need me to get the thermometer?"

"That would be good."

"All right. I think it is just a big, combined with a bit of bloating maybe? I bet you'll be over it in a few days. Here's the thermometer. I love you. See you later."

"Bye."

Tatiana gave Amazon a kiss on the forehead, then left to shepherd the youngest Williams daughter, Sphinx, off to school before going to work, leaving Amazon alone in an empty house. "It is odd," Amazon murmured to herself after her mother left, "that this is the third morning in a row that I threw up. And that it's only come in the mornings…" The shoe dropped. "Oh, crap."

Amazon threw up again, but she would later attest that this one was out of nerves.

Once Amazon (and her stomach) calmed down a little bit, she worked up the strength to get out of bed and go to the drug store, where she purchased three different pregnancy tests. Then, she made her way to her boyfriend Mason's house.

"Hey, Amazon. What's up?" said Mason as he opened the door.

"Let's go up to your room."

"What happened?"

"I think we might be pregnant."

"Who is we?"

"Me. And therefore you, because you're the only one I've had sex with ever."

Mason was a bit stunned. "Are you sure?"

"I haven't taken a test yet. I wanted to do it with you."

"So let's go do it."

Amazon went to Mason's bathroom and carefully took the test. She capped the stick, then went to sit next to Mason on his bed, test in hand. "We have to wait three minutes."

And it was the longest three minutes of Amazon's life.

When Amazon looked at the stick, the result was abundantly clear. "Mason, there are two lines."

"What do you mean?" asked her boyfriend.

"I mean, this has two lines on it. Look!"

Amazon held out the pregnancy test to her boyfriend, who carefully took it and scrutinized it. "Yep, those are two lines," Mason grimaced. "I guess you're pregnant."

Amazon flopped down on Mason's bed. "What am I going to do?"

Mason took a seat next to his girlfriend and put a comforting hand on her back. "I think it's up to you, baby. Haven't you always talked about being a mom, though?"

"Well, yeah, but not quite yet!" exclaimed Amazon. "My parents are already about to kill me, but now they're really gonna kill me."

"I'm sure they won't. Don't they love you?"

"Yes. But they want me to be a strong and tough woman who is independent and who either wins the Games or has an amazing career," lamented Amazon. "Plus, they told me that I was definitely not to become pregnant until at least 30. But I just want to be a housewife and a mommy. Is that too much to want?"

"I don't think so, baby."

"Well, thanks."

Amazon sat up and beckoned for the stick. She still couldn't quite believe that it had two lines on it. Sure enough, when she looked at it again, the two lines were clear as day. There was no doubt about this one – Amazon Brown was definitely pregnant.

"Do I have to tell them? Maybe I don't have to tell them." She began to pace back and forth across the room.

"If you keep the baby, it's gonna show. You're small."

"What do you mean, if I keep the baby?"

"You could always get an abortion."

Amazon stopped dead in her tracks. "What?"

"We can take you to Twelve and have them abort the pregnancy. You wouldn't have to worry about being a mom this young; they'd do some sort of procedure and then you wouldn't be pregnant."

"No," Amazon replied instinctively. "This is my child. I might not like how I got it, but I love you. And I' not killing my kid."

"They might not even have a heartbeat yet, though."

"For me, it doesn't matter. I was meant to have this kid, and so I'm going to care for them for as long as I or they shall live."

The two looked at each other. Amazon was not normally the type of person to be this strong about most things, so when she was, Mason knew to pay attention. "So I guess we're weathering this storm together, huh?"

"I guess so. But just think about it.

"I'm gonna be a mommy!"

* * *

Ariel Marsh finished the fishtail braid she was working on and stepped back. This was her first Reaping as a Victor; she knew she had to present herself positively, especially because her decision to protect Nissan was not received so positively in Four (even though it was Bonnie and Tace's idea).

"Girls!" Ariel's mother called. "Everyone needs to be down for the Reaping! Ariel needs to be there early so we gotta pick up the pace!"

"Coming!" chorused the seven Marsh sisters.

The Marsh household was a bustling place, with seven kids living under its roof: Alana, Ariel, Arista, Aquata, Attina, Adella, and Andrina, in order. Alana had taken on their mother's job, as was customary in Four, which had allowed Ariel to be the chosen volunteer. The other five girls were scattered in terms of interest; two were training, two were pursuing other paths, and Andrina, the youngest, wanted to take on her father's work. But, with such a busy house, it took quite a lot to get people out the door for the Reapings.

Ariel ran down the stairs and met her mom. "Ariel, you're not wearing the Marsh Family Reaping Outfit."

"While I love sundresses, Mom, I need to be a step fancier if I'm a Victor."

"But it's a family tradition!"

"Mom, I now have a public image."

"Fine." Mrs. Marsh gave her daughter a hug. "As long as you remember where you come from."

"That's why I fishtailed my hair." Ariel checked her watch. "I've got to go. Can I run ahead?"

"I'd rather you wait."

"I really don't have time to wait."

At that moment, the youngest Marsh girl, Andrina, came down the stairs. "Can you take Andrina with you?"

"Sure."

"Are you all ready, Andrina?"

"Yep!" exclaimed the seven-year-old, who looked up to Ariel more than any other member of her family.

"All right, let's go. Love you, mom."

"I love you too."

Andrina and Ariel walked, hand in hand, to the town square. When they arrived, the check-in stations weren't even ready yet. "I guess we're early," said Andrina.

"I guess so. Come on, I'll take you backstage to wait with me until Mommy gets here." Ariel and Andrina wandered around for a little bit until they found the green room, where Zander and Amphetrite were waiting. Despite some attempts by Tace to have a different outcome, the best option presented for mentoring was to have Amphetrite help Ariel mentor. The youngest Victor still felt a little bit uncomfortable with Amphetrite, but some meetings between the two had helped bridge the gap. So Ariel was willing to do it at least for the time being.

"Hey! How's it going, Ariel?" asked Amphetrite.

"I'm doing OK."

"Who did you bring with you?"

"This is Andrina. She's seven."

Amphetrite gave the little one a firm handshake. "Ouch!" exclaimed Andrina.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is a high-five better?"

"Yep!" *SLAP!* "Nope."

The three Victors fell into conversation regarding the upcoming events; Andrina, an independent soul, was totally fine playing Solitaire to pass the time. Eventually, their escort, Petunia Dreynold, joined them; Petunia hadn't made too much of a splash during the Fifth Quell as Two's secondary escort, but she seemed eager to get into the Events and have some fun.

Eventually, it was time to get the Drawing underway; Ariel brought Andrina to their mother before taking her place on stage with the rest of the Victors. Though Four wasn't drawing too late, it was winter, so the Drawing was being framed by the sunset, which made Ariel quite happy. The mayor of Four, always one to show off, gave a particularly long and unnecessary speech before turning it over to Petunia for the drawing.

Recognizing the need for speed, Petunia didn't beat around the bush. "Hello, everyone. I'll begin with the ladies." She drew the first slip from the bowl. "Amazon Brown."

The section of 18-year-olds parted around a girl who instantly looked uncomfortable. Amazon was a pretty girl with dark skin, brown eyes, and long, dark brown hair; she certainly looked mature in her pink floral frock and a sunhat with matching flowers on the brim. Amazon quickly made her way to the stage, shielding her face from the audience. She took her spot next to Ariel, who instantly noticed that she was close to a foot taller than her mentee.

Petunia drew a slip from the other bowl. "Solomon Mikkelson!"

Four seemed to draw in a collective breath as Solomon made his way to the stage; the last time his name had been drawn, a Four tribute had stepped off of the platform for the first time in years. He initially looked devastated but calmed down a moment later. Solomon was well-built and muscular and was noticeably tall, with broad shoulders, even though he was slouching; he had short brown hair, ice blue eyes, a notably angular jaw, and fairly pale skin for a White person from Four. He was wearing a grey shirt with a dark blue flannel on top and black trousers with lots of paint stains on them. All in all, he certainly looked older than eighteen.

Petunia swiftly concluded the Reaping, to the relief of everyone in the square. As the competitors made their way backstage, Ariel said to Amphetrite, "I think I'm younger than both of our competitors. How am I going to mentor them?"

"Well, Nissan is mentoring an eighteen-year-old. So this isn't quite that bad, at least. And you have me and Zander to help you out."

"I guess you're right."

* * *

 **Well, here we have another set of tributes, Amazon from AmericanPi and Sol from Little Knight Mik! What do you think of them? How did Amazon's parents react, and did that affect her pregnancy? How did Sol change after the Owen situation? Will Ariel have trouble mentoring two people her age?**

 **I think I'm going to Seven next, which is the last district for our first day of drawings. I might change my mind, though. See y'all then!**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**


	14. District Seven

_Morrel Elmwyner, 14  
Two Years Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"Good morning, class."

"Good morning, Mr. Wormwood," chorused the children.

"We're going to start with our math quiz, and then we have a special assembly with all of the other classes your age in this school. So this will be a shorter quiz than normal, at just ten minutes to allow for time-and-a-half and double-time to finish before the assembly. You're welcome. Please clear your desks."

Morrel calmly put away the books on his desk, zipped up his desk, and took out his lucky pencil. In reality, he knew that the pencil was absolutely not lucky; the only thing that would help him do well on this quiz was his mind. But everyone else in his class, for whatever reason, had a lucky pencil, so Morrel decided that it couldn't hurt to have one too.

Mr. Wormwood passed out the test. At his signal, the children flipped over the quiz and began.

As had become standard, Morrel was the first one to finish. He really didn't find fractions nearly as difficult as many of his classmates did. However, he wasn't cocky; Morrel made sure to check his answers twice to ensure that his work was clear and legible, and also correct. When he was sure that he was finished, he brought his quiz up to the front and picked up a post-quiz puzzle packet that he'd work on quietly while the extended time kids finished. Morrel enjoyed the challenge posed to him by logic puzzles, and was so invested in it that he didn't even notice that the full twenty minutes were already up.

"All right, class. If you have a puzzle packet you can leave it on your desk for now, and we'll head down to the auditorium."

Morrel found himself walking next to Angele Quarry, the daughter of one of Seven's Peacekeepers. He didn't actually know if that was true, but with a last name like Quarry, she couldn't be of any other origin. In reality, Morrel didn't really have any friends, just… acquaintances. He was too focused on his studies to socialize; yes, it was a little extreme, but he didn't really mind. He liked learning and growing academically.

"How are you doing, Morrel?"

"I'm good."

"How do you think the math quiz went?"

"Well."

"That's good."

Morrel was not a talkative kid by any sense.

When they arrived at the auditorium, the kids lined up in alphabetical order by last name and filed into their class's designated row, taking their assigned seat; this was a way to make sure that every kid made it to the auditorium appropriately. Mr. Wormwood did a quick count of his students, and when he was sure that everyone who was supposed to be there was there he held up a green piece of construction paper. After a few more minutes, the assembly began.

"Good morning, everybody. My name is Elsa Mastersen, and I am coming to you from District Three to tell you a little bit about our Early University programs. As you all know, District Six houses the higher education units of Panem, as well as the main pre-University program in Panem. Because Three is a district focused on technology, however, we host additional Early University programs that are more specialized that Six is able to allocate resources to in their Pre-U division." Elsa then launched into her full shpiel about the programs, but by that point, Morrel was already gone into his own thoughts. The Pre-U program in Three sounded perfect for him! He could learn on a level much higher than he'd ever be able to get here in Seven, and maybe even use it as a springboard for become a researcher in Six. That sounded perfect.

At the end of the presentation, Elsa asked for questions. Morrel raised his hand. "Does this program have any liberal arts options?"

"In special cases," answered Elsa. "Our program is primarily technology, engineering, and math based, however, we offer a limited number of other Pre-Major options by special application for students who learn that the technology-based subjects are not for them, as well as for students who live in Three and do not have the resources to travel to Six and learn there."

That was less than ideal for Morrel. But he could make it work.

When he got home that night, he discussed the possibility with his parents. They did some research on the schools, and learned that they were incredibly competitive programs, especially for someone as young as Morrel; almost nobody his age got in. His best bet to get into one was to apply for both, and hope that he was able to get into one of them.

Morrel spent his year studying harder than he ever had before, trying desperately to learn everything he could to get a leg up on his competition. When the application came out just after the Reaping that year, he was ready. He wrote what he thought was the best essay of his life, did what he thought was so well on the entrance exam, and poured his little heart and soul into everything he worked on.

And when November came around, and he heard back from both schools, he was devastated to find out that he didn't get in to either program.

* * *

 _Sawyer Burns, 18  
One Year Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

Sawyer enjoyed winter nights. There was something about the crisp air in January in the winter, with snow on the trees that made up Seven's magnificent forests. When she was younger, Sawyer loved playing in the snow with her mom, when her mom had spare time.

That didn't happen very often. Sawyer's mother worked three jobs, and had in varying capacities, since Sawyer was a little kid, so she hadn't really been a figure in Sawyer's life. And Sawyer couldn't understand how her mother could work that much and still not make ends meet, especially in new Panem. There was a certain stability, a role model figure, that a girl looked for in her mom; Sawyer's mom had switched jobs so much that they'd had to move around the district constantly, and her mom had been very absent for most of her life. So yes, she understood that her mom was just trying to care for her. But it was so hard for her to value and love someone who was rarely present in her life, even though her mom had been her only family for all but the last four years of her life.

Tonight, Sawyer was going on a date with her boyfriend, Michael. He told her that it would be outside, and that she should look really nice for it. So, she'd picked out her one pretty dress, a pair of thick tights, and her black flats. She was also wearing a really nice coat that Michael had gotten her for their one-year anniversary. Sawyer had even approached another girl at school and asked her to do her nails. So that was nice.

Michael made Sawyer really happy. Sure, there was a drastic wealth gap; dirt poor to incredibly rich was quite the gap. And sure, Sawyer had started flirting with him to try to find someone who could provide for her in a way that her mother couldn't. But she'd really grown to love him over their time dating. And seventeen was a perfectly average age to be engaged at in Panem. So she had her fingers crossed.

Sawyer could only imagine how great her life would be if they got married. For the first time since, well, since she was born, Sawyer wouldn't have to worry about where her next meal would come from. She could have some security, which her mother could never provide. She wouldn't have to be embarrassed when people came over to her house because she'd done _so much work_ to improve her social standing, and what would they say about her family? Sawyer had ambition, she wanted to _be something_ , to use the new Panem to make her life better. And what kind of a person was she if she couldn't do it? A fairly worthless one, in her eyes.

But tonight wasn't the night for being upset, or for being hard on oneself. Tonight was the night where she could really be in love. And wasn't love amazing? And wasn't Michael amazing?

Sawyer had been given directions through Seven's woods to a little clearing, where the two had had a picnic over the summer. When she arrived, she found a candlelit table sprinkled with rose petals, and magic lights floating in the trees. She'd never seen anything that gorgeous before! And there was Michael, dressed to the nines in a tuxedo. He embraced his girlfriend, planting a kiss on her cheek, then led her to sit down. "You look lovely tonight, Saywer."

"Thank you, Michael. So do you."

Their dinner was lovely. Sawyer loved talking with Michael, because he just seemed to get her! Even when they were finished with dinner, they continued talking long into the night, until the candles on the table began to burn low.

After dessert, Michael stood up and grabbed Sawyer's hand, pulling her up from the table. The two were about the same height, as Sawyer was tall for her age, so she could clearly see, for the first time, the nerves in Michael's eyes. "Sawyer, I have to tell you something.

"The time that we've spent together has been absolutely amazing. I'm always happiest when I'm with you, and I can't imagine the rest of my life without you."

When Sawyer looked back on that moment, everything was just a blur. One moment, she was sitting down, and the next, she was passionately kissing her fiancé, engagement ring on her finger.

Fiancé.

That word had a nice ring to it.

* * *

"Why did Ruby schedule our Drawing for last on the first day?"

"Because she's thinking about things in a summer context. Not winter."

"Has she ever been to Seven in the winter?"

"I don't know. If she had, she wouldn't have made this call."

District Seven was located in the north-west of Panem. Most days in January, it didn't get higher than 37 degrees Farenheit, and that was at the height of the day. But with Seven given the last drawing, at 5 PM, it was basically dark out already. The kids would freeze!

Luckily, when Reth (Seven's oldest Victor and therefore their representative on the Victors' Council) told Ruby about this, she came up with a decent solution: giant warmers. A tent had been built in the square with huge heating elements in and around it, and only the families of the eligible children were required to come, not the whole population of the district. Maybe the next year, they'd have the Seven draw a little earlier. Everyone hoped so.

As Reth and Alvin were waiting, playing a quick game of backgammon, the escort entered the room. She was fairly normal-looking, only having light pink hair and lavender eyes. She was also bundled up in a huge coat. "Wow, I do not like the cold! Hi, I'm Sorana."

"Reth, and this is Alex. Nice to meet you!"

"You too. I'm very excited to escort! I've wanted to do this for a very long time."

"And you're starting with a very good Games for that. Events, I guess. Because you're going to see them both alive at the end!"

"Yes, that is exciting too."

Sorana was a bit young for an escort, but she was quite lovely, and got along pretty well with both mentors. Eventually, it was time to go out on stage. "Make this quick," Reth instructed. "Then we can get everyone into the surrounding buildings to warm up before they go home."

"Should I still pause between the girl and the boy?"

"I'd say so. Give her her moment."

Sorana came onto the stage and quickly took her place in front of the balls. "We'll just draw the names, no fluff. You can meet me later. Our female competitor is Sawyer Burns."

Reth noticed a mousey girl come out of the section of eighteen-year-olds. She was on the tall end of girls her age, with brown hair and nice blue eyes, and was wearing a white dress, leggings, and a thick coat. Sawyer seemed a bit surprised, but not in a bad way, as she approached the stage.

"Our male competitor is Morrel Elmwyner."

The boy came out of the section of fourteen-year-olds, looking fairly emotionless. He was a lanky boy, with chocolate brown, curly hair, green eyes, and freckles. Morrel looked put together in his white dress pants and long-sleeved black dress shirt; Reth was very impressed that a boy that age could keep them clean.

Sorana swiftly closed the Reapings, saying, "Now go inside and get warm!" At the same time, Reth and Alvin led their competitors into the Justice Building.

"Are either of you cold?"

"I'm fine," Sawyer answered.

"I'm a bit cold," Morrel chattered.

"So we'll get you some blankets. Why don't you go into your goodbye rooms now? We'll check back in with you before we get onto the trains."

* * *

 **Here are our Seven kids, Morrel courtesy of EllaRoseEverdeen and Sawyer from IVolunteerAsAuthor! What do you think of these two? Who has the better shot? How was Morrel affected by rejection? Has Sawyer changed because of her engagement (I'll tell you that she isn't married yet)?**

 **We've finished our first day of Reapings in universe! I'm going to keep going through without an interlude, but I thought I'd let you know that we've hit this point! Yay! Next up is Nine, but I have one and a half POVs written, so that should be up by the end of the week.**

 **A few little things: First, please send me the first check-in if you have not already done so. Secondly, did anyone catch a little easter egg in this chapter? And third, w** **ould you be interested in seeing a timeline of all of our competitors' intro POVs after we're done with the Drawing?**

 **I'll see you next in Nine!**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**


	15. District Nine

_Liana Klepper, 16  
Six Years, Two Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"All right, children!" called the matron. "I need everyone to stop whatever you're doing and go straighten up your areas. I will be coming around to check. We have a high-profile couple coming today, and we want everything to look spit-spot."

Liana groaned. She swung her feet off the bed and moved over to her shelves. Liana knew she could usually get away with not cleaning under her bed if her shelves were neat enough. But, the matron had been very specific with her words – _she_ would be coming around to check. Usually she wasn't so specific. So, Liana took great care to fold every article of clothing on her shelves, lining up the seams and organizing by color. Then, she organized her personal items on the top shelf, dusting them to make them look clean. Finally, she turned on the green light above her bed, indicating that she was ready for the inspection.

"Hello, Liana," said the matron, when she got to the girl's bed.

"Good… morning? Is it morning?"

"It's close enough." The matron did a thorough inspection of the girl's area. "Your bed is made nicely as usual. And your shelves are organized very well. You are clear for the day. Please go get dressed for a visitor."

Liana smiled, very happy that she'd gotten away with it. She went to the communal closet and picked out a nice blue dress; these were outfits worn on Reaping Day and whenever visitors came, but at no other point. She slid it on, then carefully tied a matching blue hair ribbon around her head. Liana took her slightly nicer pair of sandals and slid them on her feet, then picked out a book to read, sitting on her bed, while she waited for the signal that the couple was coming.

Suddenly, Liana heard the doorbell ring. She was the first bed in the first girls' room in the orphanage, which also happened to be the first room in the orphanage, so she had to be ready as soon as the couple came in. Liana dropped the book on the floor, straightened out her sheets, and stood next to her bed, just as she'd been trained to do. Like everyone else who lived in the orphanage, she just wanted to be adopted; if that meant getting dressed up and pretending to be more of a rule follower than normal, that was fine. Almost anything was fine for a family.

Liana watched as the couple entered the orphanage. She watched the matron greet the couple – the woman looked familiar, though Liana couldn't quite put her finger on it – and talk to them for a little bit, then led them into the first room.

"So, this is our first girl, Liana. She's nine years old, and her birthday is January 19. Liana, this is Mr. and Mrs. Klepper."

"Pleasure to meet you."

The woman seemed a bit alarmed by Liana's birthday. "Do you have any other girls with birthdays on that day?"

"No, we actually don't."

"Interesting." The woman looked down and saw a book. "Do you like to read, Liana?"

"Yes. I like books a lot."

The matron picked up the book. "I'm so sorry for the mess!" she exclaimed, picking up the corner of Liana's blanket to put it in Liana's under-bed bin.

"No!" exclaimed Liana. But it was too late. The matron lifted the blanket up to find five more books in Liana's bin. "It's not what it looks like."

"Liana, what have I told you about the rules for books?"

"We can only have three at a time, and we have to bring them back to the common library when we're done."

"Yes. And why do we do that?"

"Because we're lucky that we have books now, because the Capitol is being more generous with their resources, so we have to share them not just with the other kids in the orphanage, but with all the other kids here in Nine."

"Correct. One of the staff will come to take the books later, and as penalty, you can't take out another book for three days. I'm very sorry about this. Liana is usually a very well-behaved kid. Isn't that right, Liana?"

"Yes, ma'am."

The woman smiled. "It can be hard to follow the rules, right, Liana?"

"Y-no, Mrs. Klepper."

"Would you like to ask any other questions?" asked the matron.

Mrs. Klepper looked at Mr. Klepper. "No, I think we can move on."

"Goodbye, Mr. and Mrs. Klepper."

"Thank you and goodbye, Liana."

Liana's heart sank as the Kleppers walked away. She'd been caught breaking a rule! (She did feel that it was a stupid rule, but it was a rule nonetheless.) There was no way that they would adopt her now. She just had to watch as Mr. and Mrs. Klepper went through all of the girls in her room.

A week later, Liana was called into the matron's office. There she found, to her surprise, the Kleppers! "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Klepper!"

"Hi, Liana," the woman said warmly. "We were wondering if you would like to be our daughter. I should tell you that my husband's sister is married to Garnet Emerald, so you would be in the public eye a lot, but we would really love it if you would join our family.

A hesitant smile spread across Liana's face. Being in the public eye made her nervous, but this might be her best chance for parents. "Yes, I would like that very much."

Liana and her new parents signed some new papers, giving the girl the full name Liana Kayla Klepper. Then, Liana returned to her area to pack up a small suitcase and say goodbye to her friends. Once she was ready, she said goodbye to the matron and to the orphanage and left, holding each of her parents' hands.

Now she had a real family.

* * *

 _Aviel Nitsa, 16  
One Month, One Week Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"You have one hour for this exam. You may begin."

Aviel turned over the paper on his multiple-choice test. As he looked around, he noticed many of his classmates freaking about its contents. But Aviel wasn't nervous about the test at all, because he knew all the answers.

See, Aviel knew that his teacher had been giving out the same version of this test for decades, even though she claimed that she changed the questions up. He'd gone through the black market, trading the answers to one of his midterms for the answer key for this one. Then, he memorized it, and here he was. Aviel made sure to at least think about each answer before he put it down; he'd heard from others on the black market that if he finished this test in less than 30 minutes,

It wasn't that Aviel wouldn't have been smart enough to pass the test without the answers. After all, he was a determined boy who was able to accomplish anything he set his mind to. If he'd wanted to, he could easily have focused on studying to improve his standing. But old habits die hard. Before Six was responsible for higher education, a younger Aviel had to lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead and make his parents' lives easier however he could (he would never stoop to begging). Even when school became a way to improve one's standing, Aviel had trouble breaking his old habits, and found it surprisingly easy to take the cheating skills he'd learned in life and apply them to school. At least his grades had been consistently in the range of those kids contending for university slots; even if he didn't graduate with great grades, graduating from university would be a huge step up over the other kids his age, at least while Six's schools were so selective.

Aviel slowly finished filling in his test bubbles, then made sure he had his name on the top of the test. He could clearly remember a test that he'd actually honestly done well on, but on which he lost six points for forgetting his name. That had sucked, and he'd vowed never to make that mistake again.

"Fifteen minutes left."

Now was a good time to turn in the test. Aviel looked over the answers one more time, making sure he wasn't off by a bubble, then brought his test book and bubble sheet up to the front. He returned to his desk and began to doodle on a piece of scrap paper until he and his fellow students were let out.

"How did it go?" asked his more-than-friend, Gaige.

"Totally perfect," Aviel said. "I aced it."

"Do you think you aced it, or do you know you aced it?"

"I know."

"You sneaky bastard." Gaige stole a kiss from Aviel before they split for their next classes.

Once the school day was over, Aviel met up with his girlfriend, Nora. He was _kind of_ cheating on her with Gaige, but it wasn't official yet. At least, not as far as Nora knew. The two made their way back to their houses, talking and smiling and generally pretending to be an actual couple. Aviel knew that Nora was still in love with him, but he was… kind of just dating her to gain from her parents' resources. So if he didn't love her, he could still stay in a relationship with her, but he could also find one with someone else in whom he was more interested. And that person was Gaige.

But she didn't need to know any of that, especially because she had once considered dating Gaige before she'd fallen in love with Aviel.

"How did your exam go?" Nora asked.

"I'm very confident about it."

"That's good! I'm very proud of you."

"Yeah."

They fell silent. Aviel and Nora made their way to their favorite spot; even though it was pretty cold in northern Nine in the winter, they still enjoyed being outside in their meadow.

"Are you ready for the Events?" Nora asked.

"I don't know," Aviel said. "There's so much unknown about it."

"I feel that. But I'm sure you'll be able to handle things if you get drawn."

They fell silent again. Aviel was just having so much trouble keeping up with conversation now that he'd lost interest in Nora. But he knew that, for Nora, time together in silence was a sign of their close bond. So he chose not to push it, and just sat in silence, enjoying the outside air.

"You know, Aviel, I'm so happy that we have each other," Nora said. "It's nice to have a boyfriend who's loyal and faithful. And I can see the two of us having a long life together."

"Me too!" lied Aviel.

* * *

Irabella was very excited for these Events. She was a quiet girl, so she likely wouldn't show her excitement, but she was confident that she'd be able to channel the excitement into helping her competitor succeed! If there was one thing that she could definitely use, it was the clout of being the person to mentor the first Events mentor. She sure as heck needed it.

See, Irabella was also good at noticing patterns. And she'd noticed that she and her co-Victor, Asha, were the one of two pair of Victors since two Victors were allowed to not have a connection. Lavender and Carissa from 125 were really close allies, the Sene twins from the 127th Games were twins, Steven and Nemo from 129 were in the Pack together, Giovano and Watson from 130 were a killer pair, Henderson and Lavinia from 131 were dating, Ivie and Ivey from 132 had the same name, for crying out loud, Jasmine rode Hannibal's coattails to the end in 133, and Ariel protected Nissan in 134. The only other exception were Edison and Calytrix in 126, but that was before people really knew how to work as pairs, plus Calytrix was indirectly or directly responsible for almost every kill in those Games. What all this meant was that she and Asha were fading into the background of the Victors; for each of their districts' sake, they needed to make a splash soon or they'd be forgotten. And what better way to make a splash than by helping someone win the Events? That would be pretty good.

Irabella might be quiet, but she was certainly ambitious.

"Irabella, are you almost ready?" asked Sophie, her mentor. After having guided Irabella through the Games, Sophie had mentored her through her first few times mentoring, and would continue helping her out during the Events.

"Yep!"

"Have you met Petal yet?"

"No, I haven't. Wait. Yes. Wait. What?"

"There is a Petal who was an escort last year for one district or another… Eight? Five? I dunno. That's Petal LaFeather. This is Petal Harson. She was, apparently, involved with escorting Lavender to the Capitol when she was drawn as a backup tribute. That was approximately her Games involvement, and it wasn't difficult, so she's got a lot to prove here. But I'm not nervous about her."

Sophie and Irabella walked over to the edge of the stage, where Irabella was introduced to this Petal. The woman was pretty flamboyantly dressed, as could be expected, but seemed nice enough. Then, they filed out onto the stage, to a nervous group of people waiting in South City. Unlike in Ten, where the location of the Reaping fluctuated, Nine always drew in South City. In this case, it was a good thing; South City was closer to the Capitol. Normally, they'd drive to meet at the main train station, but because their Drawing was the same day as the Parade, they wouldn't really have time for that. The plan was that, if a tribute was drawn from North City, Sarah and Reth, who were stationed up there, would take one train with that tribute to the Capitol, while Petal, Sophie, Irabella, and the other escort would take a separate train. If two tributes were drawn from North City, a hovercraft was ready to take Sophie, Irabella, and Petal to North City to meet them there before heading out (the procedure was generally not to have tributes on hovercrafts before the Events/Games started unless absolutely necessary).

"Hello everyone! I'm Petal Harson, and I'm your escort for these Events! Are we all set up in North City? Excellent. Let's get started!

"I've never been the type of person to stick with the typical, so I'm going to start with the boys! Is there an Aviel Nitsa?"

The big screen showed the movement of the crowd of sixteen-year-old boys in North City. From it emerged a surprised-looking boy in a white dress shirt that didn't quite fit right, dark jeans, black boots, and an old beat up leather duster. He was tall, and a tiny bit muscular, with dirty blonde hair and light, light blue eyes bordering on gray. As he approached the stage in North City, he began hamming it up for the cameras, clearly knowing that gaining audience approval was of utmost importance.

"Hello there, Aviel!" Petal waved through the camera.

"Hi Petal!"

"We're happy to have you on board!"

"Good to be here!"

"Now, onto the ladies. Is there a Liana Klepper?"

The sixteen-year-old girl who emerged from the crowd in South City could not have more clearly been from a more different class than Aviel. Liana had thick brown curls that lightened as they approached the bottom, steel grey eyes, and notably high cheekbones; she was tall, and carried herself almost regally, clearly knowing that she possessed a certain power. She had two visible tattoos, one on her left arm and one on her wrist, but Irabella had a feeling there were more. Liana wore a nice blue dress, a leather jacket, tights, and golden sandals, and held her head up high as she quickly walked off stage.

Petal quickly closed the Drawing, then led everyone else backstage, peeling off with Liana to get the competitor into a goodbye room. "It's convenient that the male got drawn in the same city as his mentor and the female in the same city as hers," Irabella remarked as Sophie led her back into her prep room.

"Yeah, convenient, patterns, great. Irabella, we have our work cut out for us."

"What do you mean?" For someone really good at patterns, Irabella was just not catching on.

"All eyes are gonna be on Nine now. Liana is President Emerald's great-niece, Elizah's brother's son. I know there's Games Fairness, but it's gonna look like she was rigged in. There could not be more pressure on us."

"But I'm sure the Events are structured in such a way that there can't be problems. It'll be fine. Does Ruby know?"

"We'll know when Ruby knows; we'll probably be called in to talk to her. You know, Irabella, it's kinda funny. I was her mother's mentor back in the Fifth Quell."

"Who's her mother?"

"Dania Kesten."

* * *

 **Here we are with District Nine, Liana courtesy of LokiThisIsMadness and Aviel from TheEngineeringGames! What did you think of them? Will Liana's family help or hurt her? Will Aviel try to cheat in the Events, which are supposed to be cheat proof? Are they actually cheat proof?**

 **We're getting really close to the end of the Intros! Next, we move to Five. Hope to see you there!**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**


	16. District Five

_Luna Powell, 18  
Three Years Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

Nights in the Powell household were always a little crazy. But Luna couldn't remember the last time it was this bad.

Her older brother, Chris, had already moved out, so that was one less pair of hands. Her father had a late-night shift, so he was also out. And Luna had to finish her English essay. So, it was up to her mother to wrestle a twelve-year-old, a nine-year-old, and a four-year-old into bed.

And her mother was frazzled.

Luna reached into her bag and pulled out a pair of earplugs. Her family wasn't wealthy by any stretch, but they could afford to splurge on a bag of earplugs for Luna. Luna wasn't a brilliant child – she was ranked 125th in her class of 500 – but she was smarter than any of her siblings, so by spending a bit of extra money to help her focus on her education, they hoped that she'd do something remarkable to help everyone out financially.

As Luna worked, her mother became more and more frazzled, because Luna's littlest sister, Rebekkah, was not listening at all, even though both of her older siblings were already in bed. When she finally got the little girl into bed in the bedroom, she absent-mindedly placed a lit candle on the night table right under the curtains. Rebekkah needed a nightlight, and with the electricity often (ironically) shaky in the Powell household, this was the best way to do it. With Rebekkah sound asleep, Mrs. Powell left the little girl alone in her toddler bed.

A few minutes later, Luna started to smell smoke. "Mom, something's burning!"

"I'm not cooking anything!"

"But I swear I smell smoke! It's coming from the bedroom!"

"Shit. Luna, get out of the house."

"No, I'm not leaving my family behind!"

The two women burst into the bedroom to find the curtains of the room on fire. Luna and her mother shook the younger kids awake. "Grab your animals, get your shoes on, and go outside. Wait for Luna to get there and she'll lead you somewhere." The three younger kids obliged, her brother Darren sensing the urgency and taking control of his younger siblings.

Luna's mother eyeballed the curtains. "Do you know where our important papers are?"

"Yes."

"We have about a minute. Go get your school stuff and the papers. I'll see what else I can get out before the wood catches."

"Don't stay in too long!"

"I'll be fine. Take your siblings to your brother's house. I'll meet you there."

"OK."

Luna ran into the common room and shoved her school stuff into her bag, then ran into another room and grabbed the manila folder that held the important papers. Then, she darted outside and found her brother consoling her younger siblings; Rebekkah, the youngest, was coughing heavily. "All right, guys, are you all doing OK?"

"I'm scared," Lana, the nine-year-old, stuttered.

"It's OK to be scared," Luna said. "We're going to go over to Chris's house now. Rebekkah, can you walk?"

"No."

"So I'll carry you. Let's go. Lana and Darren, stay close."

"Where's Mom?" asked Darren.

"She's going to follow us."

Luckily, Chris lived fairly close to his family, so it shouldn't have too long for Luna to arrive with her siblings. Unfortunately, Lana was not a fast walker, so it took a good while to get over to the house. When they got there, Lana banged on the door loud enough to wake her brother up if he was asleep. When Chris opened the door, he was first confused, then alarmed. "What happened?" he asked.

"Fire," answered Luna.

"Get inside." Chris threw on his jacket.

"Where are you going?"

"Is Mom still at the house?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to get her."

"Chris!"

"Yes?"

"Stay safe."

And with that, the door shut behind her brother.

Chris's wife, Ampere, emerged tiredly from their bedroom. "Luna? Kids? What's going on?"

"There was a fire at our house. Chris went out to help Mom. She sent us ahead."

Rebekkah burst into tears. "What's gonna happen?" she asked. "Is our house gonna be gone?" Then she started coughing up a storm again.

Ampere switched into a maternal mode. She worked to comfort Rebekkah, and when that worked, helped Luna get all three of her younger siblings into bed. "Are you gonna sleep?" asked Ampere.

"Not until Mom gets back."

Ampere stayed up with Luna through the depths of the night. Finally, at an hour that neither could place, Chris and his parents arrived at his home.

"Well?"

"House is gone. We waited until the firemen got there and put it out, and then went through for stuff. Mom got the valuables and our few photos out before the fire overtook the house."

"Was anyone hurt?" Luna asked.

"No. But we may be staying here for a while."

"Good. Well, not good, but OK. I'm just glad we're all safe."

* * *

 _Rochas Augustus, 17  
Nine Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"All right," said the head of the Save Earth Activist crew. "This is a big one, crew. Two has been looking into increasing its investment into fracking by thirteen percent. We tend to have the most trouble with these, but that doesn't mean we can't make our voices heard!"

"MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD!"

"Right. We're going to start marching on the Justice Building in twenty minutes. If you're in Groups A through G, you're going to circle around the Building until we make a full loop.

"A reminder that we need to use our approved chants only, and that we cannot resort to violence in any stretch. We all remember that the third strike in any given district gained from using violence in a protest or using chants that directly insult the mayor or the government will lead to a one-year Statue and a loss of right to protest for that time. We can't afford to lose the people, so please be careful. Is that understood?"

Rochas had one violent protest strike so far, and he was hoping not to get a second strike in Two, his home district. When that happened, he'd get transferred to another district in which he had no strikes, and his plan to use a violent protest as a distraction to blow up some of the smog-producing factories in Two would go to waste!

"YES!"

"Excellent. Get into your groups for attendance, then we'll march on the Justice Building!"

Rochas was in Group E. He found his group leader, checked in, then waited around until everyone had checked into their respective groups. (Rochas wanted to be a group leader but was deemed too volatile.) Then, the group leaders checked in with the crew head to report on who was and wasn't in attendance. Once that was done, the groups lined up in order, then prepared to march.

"Group leaders, green?" called the crew head. The group leaders held up green pieces of paper with the letter of their group on them, signaling that they were ready. "March!"

"No Drill, No Spill! No Drill, No Spill!" chanted the marchers as they approached the Justice Building. They banged on their bucket drums, hoisted their signs up and down, and just generally made a lot of noise. They knew that they were disturbing the whole government, all of which was hosted in the Justice Building, and that was exactly their intention. The more noise they made, the more of a difference they could make. And then all of Panem could be a greener, better place!

For the first half hour of the protest, things went really well. Everyone listened to their group leaders and followed their chants, and the protesters were feeling that things would go well! But Rochas was getting bored. What fun was a protest when nothing big happened? He maneuvered his way around the group until he found his friend. The two had a quick conversation, then Rochas pulled something out of his pocket. "Should I go for it?" he asked.

"It's your call. If it's deemed violent protest, you know you're out of Two. If not, it will either make a statement or do nothing."

Rochas looked down at his hand, then looked at his friend, then looked down at his hand again. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Rochas maneuvered his way as close as he could to the building. Then, he took the thing out of his pocket and threw it at the side of the justice building. It exploded in a puff of smoke that enveloped the marchers on Rochas's side. "That's what it'll look like if we continue the poor environmental practices!" he screamed. "We are creating smog and pollution and someday our children or grandchildren will be unable to see in this damn district!"

Rochas began to scream so much that the Peacekeepers had to handcuff him.

The next day, he was called into the office of the crew head. "Rochas, I have to say that I was very disappointed by your actions yesterday. You are a very passionate man, and we had been impressed by your work. Most people have one protest strike, after all, thanks to the aggravating nature of the Panemian government. But yesterday's actions were not only worthy of a strike, but they were completely uncalled for and did not match the theme of the protest. You should know by now that, when we have a fracking protest, we don't protest smog. It pollutes our message. For all of those reasons, we have no choice but to transfer you to District Five."

* * *

"How are you doing, Watson?" Phoebe asked as the two sat in the mentoring room.

"I'm OK," answered Watson. "You?"

"A bit nervous, but good."

"Why are you nervous?"

"Because I'm the least qualified of the mentors. I don't know what I'm doing."

"But you're older! You've had life experience."

"But you've been in the Games."

"So what we're learning is that everyone is a valuable mentor in a different way," clarified Brinna, coming into the room. "Are you two ready for the Drawing?"

"Almost," Phoebe said. "Can you help me braid my hair? My hands are a bit too short to reach around."

"Sure," Brinna replied. She wasn't particularly good at doing hair, but Brinna worked slowly and deliberately to make Phoebe's hair look as nice as Khara could make it. Brinna knew that her co-mentor hadn't been away from her father and wife for a very long time, so she was doing the best she could to keep Phoebe comfortable until they could reunite later that day. "Here, I'm done."

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome, Phoebe. Watson, do you want me to do your hair as well?"

"No, thank you." Watson had a buzz cut.

A few minutes later, Lyla came into the room with Five's escort, one that none of the younger mentors recognized. "This is our escort, Boris Valentino. He's new."

"Hello," said the man, who had blonde hair, green eyes that looked like cats' eyes, a red shirt, black leather leggings, and a long black cloak. "I am Boris. I am the escort."

"It's good to have you," said Brinna brightly. "Welcome to the Five team!"

"Does this mean we're starting?" asked Watson.

"Yep. Let's head out and get this Drawing going."

The Five team came out onto the stage and took their appropriate the placement. Phoebe, who was mentoring the girl, and Lyla, who was mentoring her through mentoring, stood behind the girls' bowl, and Watson and his mentoring mentor, Brinna, stood behind the boys' bowl. Boris took his place at the microphone, right between the bowls.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Drawing of Names for the First Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events! I am Boris Valentino, and I am thrilled to be here to lead our valiant competitors to the Capitol to win Victory and honor for District Five! As usual, I will be starting with the female competitor." Boris deliberately dug to the bottom of the bowl and picked out a slip, sending pieces of paper flying everywhere. "Is there a Luna Powell?"

A girl with nearly black hair and nearly black eyes stepped out of the front-most section. Luna was overall average looking – average height, average weight, average skin tone – set apart only by her double piercings, maybe triple piercings on her ear. She looked surprised, and a little bit anxious, as she made her way to the stage, taking her place on the girls' side of the stage.

"Welcome, Luna! It is great to have you on the team. Let's find out who your district partner will be." Boris repeated the process with the boys' bowl, rummaging around and dumping nearly every slip out of the bowl until he got it out. "Our male competitor is Rochas Augustus! Come join us!"

The boy who emerged from the section of seventeen-year-olds looked pretty calm as he came to the stage. He was tall, with a slender frame, and he had a mess of curly red-brown hair and hazel eyes. But, when he got to the stage, he noticed the leather pants Boris was working. Suddenly, he exploded into a fit of insults and protests, yelling something about Saving the Earth, to the point where he had to be dragged off the stage by a Peacekeeper.

"Well, that was exciting. District Five, your competitors, Rochas and Luna!"

"Is he the only one to get dragged away?" Phoebe asked Lyla as they followed the competitors back to the room.

"Serenity wasn't thrilled. A few people weren't happy, but they're the only two to have gotten mad to this level."

"So he's not getting sponsors."

"Bingo."

* * *

 **Everyone, give a warm welcome to our D5 pair, Luna from AspiringAuthor94 and Rochas from SparkALeah! What do you think of them? Will Rochas get sponsors? Also, for the record, their POVs are about the same length even though Luna's looks longer because of all the dialogue.**

 **On a side note, I'm still looking for a cover for the story. PM me if you're interested :).**

 **We're getting SO CLOSE to the end of the intros! Next, we go to District One. Catch y'all there!**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**


	17. District One

_Jessamine Rogers, 16  
Six Years Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"Kids! Everyone needs to come into the common room. We have mandatory viewing in ten minutes."

"Is this for the Victory Tour?" Jess, the youngest of four, asked as she came in.

"No, we had the Victory Tour interview earlier this week. This is a separate broadcast."

"Isn't that when we have a Quell announcement?"

"When there's a Quell. We don't have a Quell this year. At least I hope not."

The Rogers family gathered together on the couch in front of the television. Jess had always been grateful for her family, and really enjoyed the time they spent together. It was cool to Jess that her parents were so open to any identity that their children would have. Jess's brother, Toby, was already so comfortable with breaking gender norms, even though he was just fourteen. While she didn't know what her sexual orientation was – after all, she was only ten – she knew that her parents would support her choices. And that was a greatly comforting feeling.

Jess and her family gathered on the couch, everyone feeling a bit nervous. While none of the kids were under the Statutes, three of them were of Reaping age, so any change in the Reaping program could leave three Rogers kids in jeopardy. An extreme change could also put Jess in the line of fire, which was equally scary. So the Rogers clan waited in anxious silence until the TV turned on.

"Good evening, Panem," President Emerald began. "Over the past three and a half years or so since we instituted the Reaping Statutes, we have been monitoring the work force of our country very carefully. I am very pleased that, with the help of our grant program, we have done an excellent job of expanding the role of the twelve-to-eighteen demographic in our work force, which was our goal. However, we have also noticed that the economic gap in the country has not shifted during this time, or if it has, it has done so minimally. Additionally, we believe that the division of industry in our country has ceased to make sense. It is not logical to have separate districts for grain and agriculture, nor does it make sense for luxury items and the rest of textiles to be separated.

"In order to fix these problems, we are going to be initiating a process that we are dubbing the redistricting. We will be beginning this process in March, but we expect it to take up to five years to actually happen. Many of Panem's district will shift their industries, either slightly or completely, as follows:

"District One will absorb the industry of District Eight, meaning that it will be responsible for all aspects of fashion and clothing. District Eight will take on a new industry as the primary processing and production center of Panem, processing raw materials into finished produces, like taking paper from Seven and turning it into books, or taking cotton plants from Eleven and turning it into fabric to send to One."

Ruby continued to go through the new industries of the districts, but the Rogers family had heard all they needed to. "What does this mean, Dad?" asked Kaiser, Jess's brother who was two years older than she.

"Well, it means that we're probably going to end up in One, because I'm a designer and Mom is a seamstress. The families where everyone works in the factory will stay here, and maybe they'll bring in more overseers. What I think they could be doing is decreasing Eight's population."

"Why?" asked Chester, the oldest Rogers.

"With the new industry, they'll need a lot of factory workers, but I don't know how many applications there are for raw materials. So it's possible that they have many factories in the first place. They'll probably transfer out mostly non-rebels and quarantine Eight's rebels in Eight."

"Are we rebels?" asked Toby.

"No," interjected Zaidee, Jess's mom. "I might not always be in agreement with Ruby's policies, but she's been constantly improving the country. You have to be grateful for that."

"So when will we know what's going to happen to us?" Jess asked her father, Nash.

"We have to wait for word from the guild." Eight's designers, seamstresses, and tailors divided into two broad categories: those who worked for their own small or boutique shops, and those who worked for the Capitol's factories. Those who fell into the former category had a guild, because they could easily be taken out by the larger factories; the leader of the guild worked with the official dispatched from the Capitol to monitor the factories to keep things fair for the smaller shops. "If the guild decides to move to One, then I think we'll either have to move to One or find new jobs here. If the guild decides to stay, I don't know what'll happen. It's a question of whether or not the guild wants to go against the Capitol's wishes. And I hope they're not that dumb. My guess is that we should start packing. We'll probably have to move within two months."

Nash was right. Three days later, the Rogers family received a letter informing them of the result of the meeting between the guild's leader, the Capitol factory overseer, and the mayor. It had been decided in that meeting that the guild would transfer over to One. The family would move to One a few weeks after Jess's eleventh birthday.

* * *

 _Winsley Vwystrom, 13  
Five Years, Two Months Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"All right, Wins, are you ready to go?"

"Yep!"

Winsley grabbed his backpack and joined his father, Ginto, in the hallway.

"Do you have your uniform?"

"Yep."

"Tights?"

"I can't wear those."

"Dance shoes?"

"Yeah."

"Water bottle."

"Yes."

"Good. Let's go!"

Winsley held Ginto's hand as the two made their way to the Academy. Though Ginto wasn't Wins's birth father or stepfather, just the husband of the woman who was Wins's stepfather before her transition, he was still the much better parent of the two. Because Wins was born with pretty severe birth defects due to his mother's drug use, Jin wasn't always supportive of her son; it was only when Ginto married Jin that the idea was surfaced for Winsley to get his legs amputated. That decision changed the boy's life, because it was much easier for him to walk on his prosthetics than on his old "legs."

"Now, you know that you might be a little bit behind, because some of these kids have taken dance before."

"I know."

"And your prosthetics might also make things hard."

"I know. But I can try my best!"

"That's the spirit." Ginto affectionately ruffled his son's hair.

"Plus, there'll be lots of girls who will like me because I'm a guy."

"Or they'll think you have cooties."

"That's silly. Boys don't have cooties."

"You're right, Winsley."

When they arrived at the Academy, they were greeted by its headmistress, Lavender Aroma. "Welcome, Mr. Vwystrom. Am I pronouncing that correctly."

"Sort of. The first syllable is pronounced like why with a v in front of it, like Vuai-strom."

"Aha. And this must be Winsley?"

"Hi!" Winsley reached out his hand to shake Lavender's. "It's so cool to meet you! You're so cool."

"Thank, you, Winsley. Let's go into my office."

When they stepped into the Victor's office, Winsley was amazed by the sheer amount of lavender purple in the room. The walls were purple, most of the decorations were purple, and there was even a lavender plant in the room! Winsley also caught sight of Lavender's Victory crown, displayed on a fluffy lavender pillow on a shelf in the office.

"So, what brought you to dance classes, Winsley?"

"I dunno. I wanted to try something different to help me gain better awareness of my body. Plus I thought it would be fun!"

"Was it your choice?"

Winsley looked, confused, at his father. "Yes, of course."

"Well, that's great! It's very rare that we get boys enrolled in our classes on their own free will, so it's nice to see a young man who wanted to apply himself. I take it you've never danced before, then?"

"No. I was only really able to walk when I was five."

"I take it that was when you got your legs amputated?"

"Yes."

"And are you in the training academies as well?"

"Yes," interjected his father. "But he started late."

"Late by pre- or post-125 standards?" Lavender was fully aware of the fact that, after her Victory, parents had begun to enroll their kids in training even earlier.

"Even post-125. He started about six months ago."

"Aha." Lavender continued a conversation with the Vwystroms, jotting down notes on a bright yellow legal pad. After they were done, she led Winsley to one of the classrooms. "We're now going to do a quick movement test, Winsley. This is Ms. Shimmer, and she'll see how you move so we can place you into a proper class."

"Hi, Winsley! I like your legs."

"Thank you. They're my favorite color!"

"I like pink gold too!"

Shimmer spent an hour alone with Winsley, helping him figure out how to move his body. He was a little bit awkward. Ok, a lot a bit awkward. He was OK with his arms once he figured out how to move them smoothly, but his legs were (predictably) a bit jerky. When they were done, Shimmer brought him back to Lavender.

"He has the control of his body to be expected from an eight-year-old," explained Shimmer, "but his technique leaves a bit to be desired. Not to mention that I think he could benefit from some individual lessons because of his unique abilities; in a standard class, that would be much more difficult."

"All right. So what I think we'll do is enroll Winsley into our Sixes and Sevens class, and we'll have some him do individual lessons with an instructor as well for maybe half an hour. Does that sound good?"

"That'd be great," said Ginto. He filled out some paperwork, had Winsley sign a few places, and then father and son headed home.

A few weeks later, Winsley was settled into a routine at dance. He really enjoyed his lessons, especially his individual ones with Lavender. But there was something different about himself when he was in dance. And he couldn't quite place it.

One day after class, Ginto noticed that his son was being quiet and pensive as they walked home. That was very unlike Winsley. "Wins, are you OK?"

"Yeah."

"Did you have a good time at dance today?"

"Yes." The two walked in silence for a few more moments, Ginto silently urging Wins to talk a bit more. "But Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Something weird happened to me while I was dancing."

"Did your leg fall off?"

"No!" That had happened before; the first time that Winsley did grand battements, his leg flew off and hit Lavender in the face. "I was dancing with Ms. Lavender, and for some reason, I had this thought. I was like, I feel like a girl. I should be a girl. But I'm not a girl, I'm a boy."

Ginto stopped and bent down to his son's level. "Winsley, if you choose to identify as a girl, your mother and I will unilaterally support you. Being transgender is nothing to be afraid of."

"But I don't feel like I'm a girl now. Now I'm a boy. I'm just a girl when I dance."

Ginto furrowed his brow. "Maybe you're something called genderfluid."

"What's that?"

"It means that sometimes you feel like a boy and sometimes you feel like a girl. You don't have to know yet, though. You're only eight. Some people don't know their true gender identity until they're in their thirties or forties."

"But it's OK to sometimes be a girl and sometimes be a boy?"

"Of course it is."

The two continued walking, Winsley mulling over the idea of gender fluidity in his head. It was weird, and something he hadn't been exposed to before.

But he kind of liked it.

* * *

As the day of the Drawing had gotten closer, Jasmine Estrella was getting more and more excited. This was the first time that she'd be mentoring, and she'd come to the conclusion that the Events were a much better thing for her to focus on than the Games.

See, Jasmine was a much more mellow and sweet person than most of the other living Victors from her district, so not exactly the person needed to mentor really competitive Careers. Jasmine wasn't even sure that she was supposed to win her Games; when she got to training, she realized the sheer strength of the boys from One and Two. It was just because those two boys were competing the entire Games for the "Alpha Male" position and because the boy from Two happened to be attracted to her that Jasmine managed to get out of the Games unscathed with no kills.

"How are you doing, Jasmine?" asked Steven, her co-mentor.

"I'm a bit nervous, but I'm OK. What about you?"

"I'm doing good. Why are you nervous?"

"Just so much newness and a lack of experience. Plus, the sheer amount of testosterone in this team is insane."

"I know. Have you met Charlemagne yet?"

"No, I haven't."

Steven gave Jasmine a look. "Come into the men's dressing room." Jasmine obliged.

"Hello, young lady!" exclaimed Charlemagne when the two young Victors came in. "It's so exciting to meet you! Aren't these events such a big thing? It's so exciting! I'm Charlemagne."

"Jasmine. Nice to meet you!"

Charlemagne proceeded to talk Jasmine's ear off for thirty minutes until it was time for the Drawing to start. As Charlemagne exorbitantly led One's four mentors to the stage, Jasmine said to Steven, "Now I understand that look."

"He's a lot."

"Oh boy."

"It can't be longer than a month, right?"

"I hope not."

"WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO THE DRAWING OF NAMES FOR THE FIRST INTER-DISTRICT INTER-DISCIPLINARY EVENTS! I'M CHARLEMAGNE LAKE AND I AM SO EXCITED TO BE HERE TO CHOOSE THE LUCKY MAN AND WOMAN WHO WILL BE REPRESENTING DISTRICT ONE IN THE FIRST INTER-DISTRICT INTER-DISCIPLINARY EVENTS!" The mic gave a bunch of feedback. "Sorry."

Looking out into the crowd, Jasmine noticed that there were three sections for each year: the male, the female, and a section between them for the ten children in each year who were withheld from eligibility.

"Let's begin with the ladies. Our female competitor is… JESSAMINE ROGERS! YAY!"

The girl who came out of the section of seventeen-year-old girls certainly did not look like she came from One, as she had dark brown eyes, curly brown hair, and light brown skin. Jess was wearing a blue dress and black flats and looked a little nervous as she came to the stage.

"Why, Jessamine, that's a lovely dress," said Charlemagne.

"Thank you. I designed it myself."

"That's SO COOL! All right. Take your place next to Jasmine, great. Now on to our boy. Can I have a Winsley… Vway- Vwee- Voi-…"

Luckily for Charlemagne, the kid came out of the thirteen-year-old section to spare any more butchering of her name. Winsley had a notably androgynous appearance, with orange-brown hair that was a bit above her shoulders, green eyes, and a few freckles on her fair skin. She was wearing a sparkly pink gold dress that matched her pink gold prosthetics and a fluffy pink sweater. Wins looked a bit surprised but kept her calm as she approached the stage. "Oh, should I refer to you as a girl?"

"Just on weekends. I feel like a boy on weekdays. I think."

"Sounds good. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, HERE ARE OUR COMPETITORS FOR THE FIRST INTER-DISTRICT INTER-DISCIPLINARY EVENTS, JESSAMINE AND WINSLEY!"

Jasmine turned to Steven. "I think I might not have ears by the end of this process."

"That's a decent bet."

* * *

 **Ladies and gentlemen, our District One tributes, Jessamine from Mystical Pine Forest and Winsley from Platrium! What do you think of them? Will Jess's experience in One change her? How is Winsley's gender identity search going to affect him/her (depending on the day)? Will Jasmine have ears?**

 **We are getting SO CLOSE to the end! Next, we move to Two, then to the Capitol! A preview: if the Career Pack were to form with these competitors, it would be of the Capitol, District One, and District Two kids (this is a shift that is happening during the 132** **nd** **-134** **th** **Hunger Games), none of whom would identify as a male. I can't wait for you to see who's coming next!**

 **See you soon,**

 **Goldie031**


	18. District Two

**Trigger warning: Transphobia, especially in the first section of the chapter.**

* * *

 _Chloe Antoni, 12  
One Year Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

Chloe returned home from training and dropped her bag in the living room of her house. She'd been working up the courage to do this for weeks, if not months, now, and knowing that lists would be coming out later that month, she hoped that now was the best time to tell them what she was feeling.

"Mom? Dad? Can we talk?"

"Sure. Give us one second, Plato."

Chloe grimaced at the sound of that name. Hopefully, today would be the last time she heard it. She went into the kitchen and took a seat at the table; moments later, her parents joined her.

"What's going on?" asked her father.

"Well." Chloe took a deep breath. "Over the past few years, months especially, I've been thinking a lot about my gender and my gender identity. I've been feeling increasingly dysphoric and I've been really thinking hard about my thoughts, but I am more confident than ever that I'm not a boy. I'm a girl. I'm transgender."

Chloe waited anxiously as she watched her parents process the news. They weren't saying anything yet. That was a good thing, she hoped.

"Plato. This is just nonsense," spat her mother. "You've been a boy for eleven years now. Why are you just now realizing that you're a girl? There is no way that could happen."

"Your mother is right. Your gender is that with which you're born. You are a boy, you have always been a boy, and you always will be a boy."

"But… but… but that's not right! Your gender identity doesn't have to match your sex. I was born a male, and a boy, but I'm a girl. Genetically male, but I'm a girl."

"No, you're not," echoed her parents.

Chloe burst into tears. "Can I please change my name, at least? I can wait to change my division in the Academy, but please just my name."

"To what?" asked her father.

"To Chloe."

Her parents looked at each other, then took a moment to think it through. "No," said her father. "Chloe is a girls' name."

"Your father and I didn't go through all that we did to give birth to you to not have a strong, powerful man come out of it."

"And even if this was true, you're way too young to make that kind of decision."

"You are our son, and you will be our son at least for the foreseeable future."

Chloe ran out of the room, her face streaked with tears. She knew that her identity would have been a tough pill to swallow; her mother and father were so proud of their strong little boy. But parents were supposed to accept you! They were supposed to support your decisions and identity! They were supposed to love you unconditionally.

Supposed to.

Chloe needed support. She needed someone who understood her in a way that clearly her parents didn't. So she headed over to her friend Minerva's house, the first person she told about her gender identity. Minnie and Chloe had grown up together; even when Minnie stopped wanting to train, she continued to go to the Academy to spend time with Chloe. Obviously that would stop working once the cuts began – Minerva was, like, third-to-last in her and Chloe's year – but Chloe definitely appreciated her best friend's support.

She needed it now more than ever.

Chloe knocked on the door of Minnie's house. Minerva's mom opened the door. "Hello, dear. Would you like to go to Minnie's room?"

"Yes, please."

"Well, come on in. Are you OK? You seem a bit upset."

"I just need to talk to Minnie."

"All right, Plato."

Chloe convulsed, then bolted up the stairs to Minnie's room, throwing open the door and flinging herself into her best friend's waiting arms. "Minnie, Minnie!"

"Did you tell them, Chloe?"

"I did. And they totally rejected me! They said I was too young to be making that decision, and that I would still be their son Plato."

"Oh, Chloe." Minnie enveloped her friend in a hug. "Come here. Let's make you feel better."

"I just need to cry." Minnie sat with Chloe, rubbing her back, as she cried and cried. Finally, Chloe looked up at Minnie. "Now I'm ready to feel better."

Minerva immediately threw open her closet, one chock full of dresses. She sat with her friend, carefully applying makeup, dressing her up in pink with high heels, and styling her hair. After a while, she proclaimed Chloe done, and stood her friend in front of a mirror. "Whenever you need, Chloe, you come here and play dress-up with me. You are a girl, and I'll make sure you always feel like one."

"Thank you, Minnie."

"Always. That's what best friends are for."

* * *

 _Myranda Lidano, 18  
One Week Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"Good morning, Myranda!"

"Good morning, Dania."

"Ready to train?"

"I was born ready."

This was the exchange that Myranda and her trainer, Dania Lidano, her long-lost cousin, shared every week. Dania had come to Two from the Capitol about five years ago as a new employee to the Academy and was assigned as Myranda's personal trainer; when they discovered that they shared a last name, they did some research, and were excited to find that they were, in fact, related.

As usual, Myranda began her day with conditioning before she could even touch a weapon: a long run, sit-ups, pull-ups, weight training, et cetera, all to make sure Myranda was at her top physical shape. Then, the two did close combat training, sparring with swords, daggers, and knives before taking a mid-morning break.

"You're looking good, Myranda," said Dania, reaching for a water bottle.

"You too. Remember that time when I could beat you easily?"

"That never happened. I was just going easy on you."

"Yeah, yeah." Myranda unwrapped a snack from her bag and took a bite.

Dania took a deep breath. "I have some news for you, Myranda."

"Yes?"

"Yesterday, after training, I had a meeting with the Academy staff. We learned that they're releasing their rankings at lunchtime today, instead of next week."

Myranda felt her stomach drop. "Why?"

"Tomorrow is the deadline to submit the list of children of each age to be exempt from the Drawing. They're releasing the rankings today so that the top five kids of each gender and age know that they're being pulled out of the Drawing pool."

"Isn't your birthday tomorrow as well?"

"Yes. January 19th."

The severity of what Dania said hit Myranda. "They're posting lists today. Are they making cuts today, too?"

"They usually make cuts in January, right?"

"Yeah."

"So I'd guess that, even if they don't formally make the cuts today, it'll be pretty clear who is getting cut."

"Great."

"Let's get back to training, yeah?"

"Sure."

After mid-morning break was long-range weapons; today, Myranda was working on archery and the crossbow. But the thought of getting cut today was deep on her mind. Admittedly, it had been on her mind for quite a while since beginning her training – what would life be like after the Academy? Would she have something to do? Would she be motivated to do anything? Myranda had heard all too many stories of former trainees becoming depressed and lethargic, even suicidal, when they weren't chosen as volunteers, usually those who made it to 17 or 18 before getting cut. Would she suffer the same fate?

"MYRANDA!" screamed Dania.

"What?"

"You almost shot that crossbow into my skull, then turned and nearly beheaded me with it. Please be careful."

"Sorry." Myranda put the bow down. "This whole cuts thing is weighing heavily on my mind."

"It always seems to bother you."

"Yeah. I'm just worried about not being good enough."

"You placed seventh back in October, eighth in the preceding July, and ninth the previous April. There's no reason to think that you wouldn't do just as well this time. You won't get cut. And yes, I know you don't usually talk up your achievements. But you're doing a dang good job, my dear."

Myranda blushed. "I guess."

"Let's switch over to blow-pellets and blow-darts for now. Those are less dangerous to my health. We can come back to arrows later."

"Fair enough."

At 1 PM, all of the children gathered in the main gym, anxiously waiting for the lists to be posted. Lists were only posted for the top eight age ranges in the Academy, from children who would be eleven on Reaping day to those who would be eighteen. Of those groups, only the kids who would be fourteen and older on reaping day were susceptible to cuts, but everyone wanted to know where they were in their class to either figure out how much more work needed to be done or to secure bragging rights until the next round of lists came out. Additionally, for every list on which a trainee placed in the top ten percent of students, they gained immunity from one cut should they fall below the threshold. This would be good for Myranda – the January cut for 18-year-olds brought that year down to just thirty-five students, and it would be further decreased to the top ten come April, before a volunteer would be selected in late June, a month before the cuts were announced for the remainder of the trainees. (The numbers remaining after each cut had been the same for years, so each trainee knew exactly what they had to do to remain safe.)

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, Carissa Lovarre came into the room. (She had drawn the short straw that year.) Methodically, she found the bulletin board for each age group and pinned up the appropriate list to the wall, attempting to not be swarmed by the masses of children desperate for their placement. Finally, she hung up the list of eighteen-year-old girls. Myranda carefully approached the wall, scanning for her name.

It was the sixth.

Myranda returned to her training room and reported back to Dania, "I placed sixth."

"That's good. Top ten in your year at this stage is phenomenal. It puts you in prime position for the next cut, as you haven't dropped below tenth for quite a while."

"But?"

"What do you mean but?"

"But it's _only_ sixth. I'm not out of eligibility for the Events."

Dania smiled. "Do you know how unlikely it is that you'll be drawn for the Events? Insanely unlikely. I know we don't usually think about odds, because someone always volunteers. But there are so many kids of Drawing age in Two that it's so unlikely that you'll get picked. And you know what?"

"What?"

"If you go into the Events, you just have to win. There's no other option. And how could anyone beat you?"

* * *

District Two's cadre of young Victors, Arabelle Pick, Carissa Lovarre, and the Sene twins, made their way towards the Justice Building. Having come home within the span of five Games, these four Victors had basically been trained in mentoring together, and had formed a close friend group as a result.

"Are you ready, Arabelle?" Carissa asked.

"I think so. I've mentored on my own for a Games before, and this probably isn't all that much different."

"But the format is so weird," Demetrius Sene pointed out. "Like, how do you get trained tributes not to kill?" Demetrius was, by far, the less smart Sene twin.

"How do you know they're gonna be trained?"

"They're from Two. Of course they're trained to some capacity. Our school system goes through the Academy."

"True."

"I just think it was smart for the Academy to be so methodic about how to choose those who would be withheld from the Drawing," Deidra said. "At least then our major prospects won't be rendered ineligible for the Reaping."

"But they could still volunteer," Carissa pointed out. "Unless the Capitol says they can't volunteer."

"But we'll still have options," said Arabelle. "I'm not worried."

"Once you can talk this year's kids off of the ledge," pointed out Demetrius.

"You really think it's gonna be that hard?"

"I do."

When they arrived, the group split off; Arabelle, as a mentor, went to one green room, while the non-mentors went to another. Arabelle gave each of her friends a hug before she left, because she probably wouldn't see them for another month. It was bittersweet; usually, all of the Victors traveled to the Capitol for the Games, so the group really had each other to support each other. Now, it would just be Arabelle and Hannibal Oriot, two Victors who hadn't really interacted with each other since Arabelle's Victory ten-plus years ago.

"Hi, Hannibal," Arabelle said shyly.

"Hello, dear. How are you doing?"

"I'm OK. A bit nervous, but generally OK."

"Very good."

That was all the conversation the two had before their escort came in. "You look familiar," Arabelle said to her.

"Yes, I was a secondary escort for Nine for the Fifth Quell. I'm Boebette."

"Arabelle. And this is Hannibal. It's nice to meet you!"

"You as well."

Having worked with Nine's Selection girls, who were now around Arabelle's age, Boebette was able to form a solid connection with the mentor. The two had a nice conversation before it was time to begin the Drawing.

Coming out onto the stage, Arabelle noticed that the sections for each age were divided into three, with a special division for each age range reserved for those who were not eligible. Arabelle and Hannibal sat in the thrones on the stage reserved for the Victors. Arabelle still remembered the first day she sat on a throne, something every child in Two dreamed of doing from a young age; it was completely surreal for her. That feeling of novelty still hadn't worn off.

Boebette ran through some of the procedures of the Drawing before choosing the girl for the Events. "Will a Myranda Lidano please come to the stage?"

Myranda emerged from the section of eighteen-year-olds, looking a little bit shell-shocked. The girl, who was of average height and weight, had long, wavy red hair and green eyes, as well as freckles sprinkled over her slightly tanned skin. Myranda was wearing a statement leopard print jacket over a black shirt, black jeans, and boots. As she approached her mentor, Myranda's emotion slowly morphed into happiness, and she began to exude the confidence expected from District Two trainees.

"Hello, Myranda. How are you?"

"I'm excited. How are you?"

"Doing well, thank you. Ready to meet your district partner?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"Excellent." Boebette drew a slip from the other bowl. "Plato Antoni!"

A twelve-year-old boy with shaggy, light brown hair and bright brown eyes emerged, also looking shocked. He was wearing a white dress shirt with a black tie, black slacks, and black shoes, as well as a red barrette with a little feather on it in his hair. Like his older district partner, Plato slowly became excited about the prospect of representing Two in the Events, and gave Myranda a smile as he took his position on the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your representatives for the Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events, Plato and Myranda!"

* * *

 **We are so close to the end of the intros, friends! Thanks so much for LokiThisIsMadness for Myranda and CelticGames4 for Chloe. Do you think Chloe will be able to be out publicly now? How will Myranda react to getting picked? Have we seen Dania before?**

 **Well, the only place we really have left is the Capitol, and our final pair of competitors! One content question as I plan ahead: are you interested in seeing goodbye scenes, or would you rather see things go straight to train rides? Let me know.**

 **Thing to know: there will be a check-in next chapter. But it won't be a standard check-in. That's all I can say. And it'll be a bigger part of the story than check-ins have been in the past. Keep your eyes out!**

 **See you next time,**

 **Goldie031**


	19. The Capitol

**You might want to pay attention to the end of this chapter, even if you don't have a competitor in the Games…**

* * *

 _Silas Rune, 17  
Two Years Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"Good morning, Silas."

"Good morning, Dad."

"Are you almost ready for school?"

"Yep!"

"All right, then. Hurry up. I have to get to work."

Silas's father was a chef. And a good one at that. After the redistricting (which came to Garo's chagrin, though it didn't affect him much), when Capitolites began visiting One, his restaurant became a very popular destination for high-end lunches and dinners. The problem was that, because One had to funnel money into the new clothing factories coming in from Eight, so his salary had been slowly decreasing. Then came Garo's big break: an offer to be head chef at the most famous restaurant in the Capitol, and one that just so happened to be quote close to One. Even though the commute would be rough, the pay increase would certainly be worth it. It did make mornings more complicated, though.

"Silas! Let's go!"

"I'm getting my training bag together!"

"Well, I need to go be our family's breadwinner."

"Mom works too." The two quickly hopped into the car, Silas taking shotgun as usual.

"Yes, but mostly with polishing gems. She doesn't bring in quite as much as me."

"But you shouldn't discount the fact that she works."

"Fair."

The car fell silent as Silas pulled out some work to do. While Silas did train, and was pretty good, they'd begun to question what they would do after training. So Silas had taken on a bit of additional schoolwork to begin working towards some other career. While they still spent a good amount of time training, their ranking had started to slip slightly because they had to split their time at home between homework and at-home practice for training.

"Any big matches coming up?" asked Silas's father.

"We spar every Friday, and as we get closer to lists going up, we spar against people closer to our level. That way they can get the best approximation for our spot on the list."

"Makes sense. Where do you fall right now?"

"Definitely top 50. Not sure exactly where in that I fall, especially because a few kids moved here from Two to try to get a better shot at the volunteer spot."

"Aha." They fell silent again. Silas and their father had a bit of a strained relationship; Garo was fairly conservative, and Silas recently come out as genderfluid. As much as Garo tried to understand his son, and learn more about the way he… they… he... they identified, it was still difficult for him to grasp that there were more than two genders.

Moments later, they arrived at the Academy, the home of Silas's education and training. Silas grabbed their stuff, fist-bumped their father, and headed in to training.

Silas, who trained with the boys despite his gender orientation due to his testosterone, got into his morning regimen with some of his training partners. Routine was very important for training, and as Silas took their training seriously, they also took their routine very seriously. So when a man Silas had never seen came into the room, they had a feeling that their daily routine was about to be pretty permanently disrupted.

"Excuse me, trainees. Will the following students please follow me?" Silas listened for their name; when they heard it, they followed a handful of other trainees of Reaping age to the Headmaster's office. They were met there by their own headmaster and another woman. "Trainees, this is Headmistress Sereno, who is in charge of the Academy in the Capitol," the man explained. "What she and Headmaster Jasper are going to tell you cannot leave this room. Is that understood?" The students nodded. "Good." The man left, staying outside to guard the door.

"Hello students. My name is Headmistress Sereno, and as my assistant said, I supervise the relatively new Career Academy in the Capitol. You all have something in common: you have a lot of potential as trainees, but have recently dropped in rank here in One; more likely than not, you won't be selected as volunteer. We are in need of something to stimulate our trainees, so that they can achieve the Victory potential that we know we have. Lavinia's Victory a year and a half or so ago helped, but she really wasn't nearly to the level we expect from trainees even in Four, and we would really like to give our kids some more competition. So, we have decided to offer each of you a spot in the Capitol Academy. We have selected children in your shoes from each of the districts, who are good but not great, and will have a much better chance to attain volunteer status in the Capitol."

The students were silent. "Do we have to decide now?" asked a sixteen-year-old girl.

"No. Even if you don't know now, the offer will stand for up to a year."

Headmaster Jasper and Headmistress Sereno continued to discuss the proposition with the trainees for a while until it was time for them to return to class. But Silas struggled to focus. When they returned home that night, they discussed their options with their parents. They eventually agreed, as a unit, that the best bet was for Silas to move over to the Capitol's Academy.

* * *

 _Lyric Cloud, 15  
Exactly One Month Before the Drawing of Names_

* * *

"Lyric, come on! We gotta go!"

"Where are we going again?"

"Seven. The craft will be here any minute!"

"All right!" Lyric turned to her closet, picking out a long, forest green dress to bring with her to Seven. She quickly put it in a garment bag and brought it, along with a small duffle bag with her makeup, a pair of pajamas, and a spare outfit downstairs. "Do I need to grab my instruments?"

"We have all three of them already."

"Cool."

Lyric's family owned a music store called Cloud's Composers, which had been passed down from generation to generation in the family. Since the expansion of inter-District travel, the Cloud family had begun to publicize themselves as a cheap yet high-end act for celebrations. Once word about them got around, demand went up; this had helped them out financially to the point where they didn't have to worry about closing the store anymore. It was truly a blessing.

When the hovercraft touched down, the Cloud family sprang into action, loading suitcases, outfits, instruments, and equipment on before running their checklist. This had become a necessity after the time that the youngest Cloud, Melody, had left her custom violin and all its music in her room. Or after the time when all of their A/V equipment was left in District Twelve.

Whoops.

"All right, checklist completed and we're good to go," announced Chorus, Lyric's father and the owner of the store. "Is Verse coming this time around?"

"No," Beauty replied.

"All right. Let's go!" The craft took off. "My lovely lady family members, you might want to start getting ready on the craft. It's gonna be tight with sound check in Seven."

Lyric nodded. She knew that she couldn't do her hair on the hovercraft – there weren't any outlets for a curling iron, after all – so she chose instead to focus on her makeup. After doing her face, Lyric applied pretty dark eye makeup, as she always did, to help bring out her crystal blue eyes. Because she significantly accented her eyes, Lyric chose a simple pink lip gloss, just enough to give them some shine. Once she was done with her own makeup, she helped Melody with hers to avoid running into the Racoon Mess again. She timed everything perfectly; once she was done with her sister's makeup, the craft was touching down in Seven.

"How much time do you need to get ready, girls?"

"I just need to curl my hair and then I'm good," answered Lyric.

"Beauty?"

"Um…"

"You're not quite ready, are you?" deadpanned Chorus.

"Not even close. And I also have to do Melody's hair."

"OK, sure. You're only in one song anyway, so why don't you start with Melody's hair and I'll start once the girls are done? Then you can join when you're ready."

"Got it."

Once Lyric had finished curling her hair, she retrieved her flute and guitar cases from the hovercraft and brought them into the main room. "Am I playing sax too?" she asked her father.

"Yes, but let's start with your flute parts. You can grab your sax when I work with Melody."

Lyric closed her eyes as her father guided her through the songs she'd be playing on it that night. When Lyric played, all of her teenage insecurities washed away; she was a part of the notes that floated out of her instruments. She loved the light, airy tones of her flute, and the jazzy sound of the sax, but she especially loved the earthy tone of the guitar. She enjoyed strumming and plucking, creating a fuller sound than she could with any other instrument.

"You sound good tonight, Lyric," Chorus said. "Really loose. You're good to go!"

"Thanks, Dad!" She gave her father a kiss on the cheek, then headed back to the green room.

When the event started, Lyric and her family took time to mingle with the assembled guests. It was this part of her job that made Lyric feel the least comfortable. A Capitolite in a District would always stand out; they had a status that the citizens of that district would never attain. But Lyric, with her dyed hair and tattoo, would always physically stand out from those in the Districts she visited. And that made her feel uncomfortable, made her question her decision to change her body, which she'd done to feel and look more like her Capitol friends. She did all kinds of things so she could fit in with them, but when she did, she stopped feeling like herself; this feeling was always amplified when she visited a District.

Didn't everyone just want to fit in?

* * *

 _Selection Girl Lilith Russe to Mentor for the Events!_

 _Daughter of Prominent Games Doctors to Return to a Governmental Role for the First Time in Ten Years!_

 _Has Lilith Russe Gotten Over Garnet?_

Lilith crumpled up the tabloid and threw it in her recycling bin. She knew that, due to her status as a Selection girl and her parents' prominence, her mentoring would manifest itself in the Capitol tabloids. That didn't bother her. What was hard for her was the Garnet question. She'd totally understood why Garnet hadn't chosen her. But the knowledge that she'd never get to marry him had haunted her for years. She'd never really gotten over it.

She would never get over it.

To add insult to injury (though she knew Garnet didn't mean to hurt her), she'd been asked to mentor for the Events. She'd "gone through the process before," and would be a "positive influence on the children." She couldn't really say no to the government, so she'd agreed to mentor. But she didn't know how much her heart would be in it, into working on something that the man whom she once loved was so deeply involved with.

Lilith made her way to the Justice Building to meet up with her co-mentors and her escort. The mentoring crew in the Capitol was the least experienced one of any district. It was Lilith, who didn't even make it into the Selection or the Games, and Henderson, who won thanks to his girlfriend, Lavinia, which had just happened three and a half years ago. Sure, Lavinia and Henderson had gotten by mentoring on their own, but they'd had zero success. And the jury was still out as to whether their idea to push Capitol kids into the Career pack was actually good. So, assuming all other factors were equal, the Capitol kids could very well be screwed.

Wonderful.

When Lilith arrived, she greeted Lavinia and Henderson, who received her fairly amicably. She had a feeling that Lavinia felt a bit weird about not mentoring, and about separating from Henderson for the first time since their Victory, but she hoped that they would have a working relationship for the duration of the Events, whatever their roles may become.

Moments before the Drawing, the escort, Ellis Harpario, entered the green room. Ellis had been selected as the crew chief for the Events escorts, just as there was a crew chief for the Games escorts; the crew chief always had the privilege of escorting for the Capitol, primarily so that they wouldn't get delayed in coming back, or so that they were in close proximity to the Gamemakers in case something went wrong. When selecting a crew chief among fairly inexperienced escorts, Ellis was the clear choice; if she was able to deal with Pacifica in her first year of escorting at just nineteen, she could deal with anything. Ellis took a few minutes to introduce herself to the three mentors and talked to each of them for a moment to get to know them before leading them onto the stage for the Drawing. She smoothly opened the ceremony and orchestrated the formal proceedings before getting on with the Drawing itself.

"I will begin, of course, with the competitor in the female slot." Ellis carefully selected a slip. "Lyric Cloud!"

The girl, who emerged from the fifteen-year-old section, certainly had the mark of a Capitolite: hair dyed pink, fading to green, fading to blue; crystal blue eyes; nearly flawless skin; a tattoo of music notes wrapping from the back of her neck, around her arm, onto her rib cage that one could just barely make out from under her plain white dress. Lyric seemed pretty stunned but slowly managed to make her way up to the stage.

"Hello, Lyric. What are your preferred pronouns?" Ellis knew that it was important to always ask her tributes their preferred pronouns so that it would be aired as such on national television. She was very conscious of gender identity and took pains to be as accommodating as possible in a binary system.

"She/her."

Ellis nodded. "Now, for our competitor in the male slot. Silas Rune!"

The boy who emerged from the section of seventeen-year-olds seemed slightly upset initially. Silas had tanned skin, deep brown eyes, dark brown hair, and a fairly notable feature for a competitor in a male slot: pierced ears. He was wearing a plain black shirt with the sleeves cut off, pale blue jeans, and combat boots. As he got closer to the stage, his face brightened, seeming to come to the realization that being in the Events could be a good thing.

"Hello, Silas. What are your preferred pronouns?"

"They/them, please."

Ellis nodded again. "Ladies and gentlemen, your competitors for the First Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events, Silas Rune and Lyric Cloud!"

* * *

 **We made it through the intros! Pat on the back for everyone – well done! Thanks to TheEngineeringGames for Silas and District 9 Tribute for Lyric. Will Lyric find a way to fit in? How is Silas handling their Drawing? How will Lilith deal with all of this?**

 **Now on to some fun stuff! On my profile is the link to the audience participation form. This form will ask for a chapter number, a secret word, which, for this chapter, is HABERDASHER, and for you to provide your top 7* competitors by any criteria you want. These answers will have an impact on the results of the story (ie placements); you'll see exactly how later on.**

 **If you do not have a competitor, YOU CAN STILL FILL OUT THE FORM. I would love to have as many people participate as possible! If you do have a competitor in the story, filling out the form serves as a check-in for the indicated chapter.**

 **Next, we're going to have a little recap of our tributes, and some things will become a bit clearer. Then we'll go straight into the train rides, which will be divided up by day of Drawing, so the chapters will be lopsided. I'm super excited to get this story underway!**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**

 ***Disclaimer: I reserve the right to only count the top five competitors selected in later calculations. Again, this'll become clearer later.**


	20. Dossiers & Timeline

**If you haven't filled out the second check-in, please check the end of last chapter.**

* * *

Violet Emerald made her way through the hallways of the Gamemakers' Center, approaching the high-security conference room. Before the institution of the Events, it was only used once a year: to go over the dossiers of the tributes for the Games. The dossier system was instituted when the Reaping Statutes were introduced; the exact details of a given Statute were not revealed by the government to the public, but they were reviewed by a few people in private to know what they were dealing with and who would be better Victors (though the Gamemakers would _never_ directly target a tribute). There had been a debate as to whether or not the dossier system would continue for the Events, but Ruby had encouraged it, in case an aspect of a competitor's history would impact the Events. (Violet wasn't sure why Ruby was so adamant about the dossiers when she refused to be in attendance when they were read, but she'd long ago decided not to argue.)

When she entered the conference room, she found that she was the last to arrive; Garnet, the President's representative, and Madaline Ohm, the woman in charge of background checks, were already there. Madaline was the daughter of a prominent researcher in Three, but was reaped for the 128th Games due to a scandal related to her father's research; she was then rescued from the Arena, but rather than send her out into a district, they kept her in the Capitol to help with background checks for government officials and research for tribute dossiers, as she had exceptional research skills and access to information through Three's databases that previous background checkers did not. Violet only knew about Madaline's existence and saving because of her research skills, and thought it was an isolated incident.

"Hello, Ms. Emerald. Are you ready for the dossiers?"

"Yes. It's a little weird to do them before the Reaping recap, though."

"But there was no other way – they're showing the Drawings right before the Parade," Garnet explained.

"I understand that. That doesn't make it any less weird, especially because we haven't seen any of the competitors yet." It was policy, also instituted with the Statutes, that the Head Gamemaker and the President's family didn't watch any Drawings before the recap.

"Fair enough, dear cousin."

Madaline slid folders across the table to the Emeralds in attendance, then uncovered the projector, which displayed a slide that read "THE COMPETITORS OF THE FIRST INTER-DISTRICT, INTER-DISCIPLINARY EVENTS" in giant, magenta comic sans. (Madaline always had a flair for the childish in her presentations.) "Hello again, my friends. It's exciting to be presenting for a new Gamemaker. This year, I've noticed two characteristics that manifest themselves in many of our competitors. Firstly, many of our competitors have moved districts at some point in their lives. Secondly, many competitors have some form of a strained relationship with their parents. I'll make sure to point these out as we work through our competitors."

Madaline moved to the next slide, which displayed a picture of Nell. "We begin with the earliest district to draw, District Six, which drew at lunch yesterday. The female from Six is Nell Edwards, age fourteen. Nell is the daughter of John Edwards, who writes for the Panem Times, which is the most reliable newspaper nationally. He's been training her a little bit, so she's got good writing skills, but she's not academically remarkable other than that. Questions?"

"Is she in Six's pre-University program?" Garnet asked.

"No. She's in their regular Reaping-Age school. It's in the same building, but different programs. Anything else? Cool. I will point out here that Nell is being mentored by one of our Selection ladies. Just something to keep an eye on." *CLICK*

"The Six Male is Ventus Gorva, age eighteen. Both of our characteristics manifest themselves in Ventus. His mother was, according to court documents from the divorce of his parents, an extremely sociopathic, manipulative, and abusive woman with a lot of power in District One. Ventus's father filed for divorce, and in his application to move residence, he cites that his wife began to smear his name around One, whatever that means. Either way, the Gorvas now live in Six.

"Because he was from One, Ventus faced a lot of hostility in Six, even post-redistricting. Ventus faced a lot of bullying and abuse in Six, but didn't handle things very well initially. We have records of Ventus getting into fights at school, which put Ventus under a Statute that would have expired last Games were it not for an attack on Ventus a year ago in which one kid broke his arm and another pulled a knife. The school finally took action at that point and his statute was already lifted, but I can't imagine the impact that's had on him.

"All that being said, we must note that Ventus has extensive training, not just from One's Academy but from his mother. According to Ventus's father, Ventus's mother wanted nothing more than a Victor. From what I can tell, Ventus is no longer training, but his younger sister, Malva, may still be. And I do wonder if Ventus still would want to be in the Games."

"Did Malva request her name be taken out of the drawing?" asked Garnet.

"No."

"Is Ventus out of Reaping age?" asked Violet.

"Nope. He is still technically to be eligible to enter the Games this summer. Any more questions? Ok. Obviously, a lot of questions about him come from personality things that we don't have in public records, and because we have public records, we didn't reach out to any family members. So we'll have to see how he's changed, but he's one to keep an eye on. Let's move on for sake of time." *CLICK*

"Our Thirteen Female, Henley Moriarty. Age sixteen. She grew up in Thirteen, and therefore was under the special Statute, but had no Reaping Statutes of her own. Henley was in the Thirteen Special Ops unit, which merged right into the Capitol SpOps branch. As you know, Henley was rigged into the Events; her primary job is to be there on the inside and ensure that everything runs smoothly and that there is no fighting or killing. Any questions on Henley?"

"I'm not familiar with Henley's mission. Is she still eligible to participate in and win the Events?" Garnet asked, making notes on his page on Henley in his folder.

"Yes. Henley has the ability to participate just like any other competitor would. The structure of the Events, as you know, is such that there is no outside influence on the outcome of any given competition, so there can be no Gamemaker bias. And because each competition is individual, so they're not competing in teams or using alliances, just by themselves, she could totally throw/lie about competition placement if needed. Anything else? All right." *CLICK*

"Aelyx Stark is our Thirteen Male. Age eighteen. He's the nephew and adopted son of Erik Stark, who is the commander of the Special Ops branch. Aelyx was not rigged into the Games, and is unaware of Henley's mission; from reaching out to his father, we know that Erik didn't tell Aelyx anything about Henley's mission. Aelyx has both characteristics in himself: he moved from the Capitol to Two when his father's second wife made his father kick him and his sister out, and he then moved with his uncle Erik to Thirteen when the military relocated. Any questions?"

"Does Aelyx's birth father still have contact with Aelyx?" asked Violet.

"Unclear from my findings."

"Is Aelyx in the army?" Garnet asked.

"He enlisted as a reserve officer when he turned sixteen, as all children born in Thirteen are required to do. Any other questions? Excellent." *CLICK*

"Now we move to District Ten. Our female competitor is Ramona Wayland, age thirteen. She is the niece of Viktor and Rowena Wayland, two tributes from the Fourth Quell." The Emeralds in the room visibly winced at the mention of the Fourth Quell. Nobody talked about the Fourth Quell, which, being born twenty years at least after the Fourth Quell, Madaline couldn't have known. "There's not much to say about Ramona. She's very intelligent, in the top ten of her class academically. She also has a connection to Alexei, the Three Male, but I'll get into that later. Questions? No? Yeah, she's pretty simple. Great." *CLICK*

"Our Ten Male is Kitt Mosley. Age seventeen. We don't have a ton on the records about him, so we reached out to his parents. They were very nice and personable, and told us that Kitt doesn't go to school in the winter because he works the rodeo. And obviously there's no school in the summer. Kitt mostly works with the bulls, to get them ready for the arena, but doesn't ride horses at all due to an injury he had when he was younger. This led to an extended story about every individual incident between Kitt and bulls and horses, and everyone's feelings about Kitt's accident, and everyone's feelings about Kitt's feelings about the accident, and to be honest I just let them talk while I did more work. Any questions on Kitt? Cool." *CLICK*

"District Twelve! The female is Sharen Cantiano, age sixteen, who also hits both of our characteristics on the head. Sharen was born in Eleven, but after her mother's death when she was twelve, her father refused to take her in, so she joined her mother's family in Twelve. We have records of her traveling back to Eleven just over two and a half years ago to visit her father, and then traveling back to Twelve shortly thereafter. So the visit didn't go so well. There are no other important points to Sharen, so unless there are any questions, I'll move on. Good." *CLICK*

"Our male is Alder Howe. He's really just a simple, average, twelve-year-old kid. Loves trucks. Nothing remarkable in his backstory. But he's very cute. I'll move on now." *CLICK*

"The female from Eleven is Mallory Farro, age fifteen. Her parents are overseers in the fields known for being especially tough, and that's saying something in Eleven; Quinoa, her mother is especially known for her cruelty. So we may have a dicey relationship with her parents situation here as well. There is a report from a physical education teacher that says that her grades dropped after her thirteenth birthday due to a limp."

"Is there any recorded abuse?" asked Violet.

"Not on file. But it wouldn't surprise me if it has happened. Mallory has surprisingly little on the record for the child of an overseer, but I'm fairly confident that there is no rebel activity in her family (after all, she is the child of an overseer.) Any questions? Excellent." *CLICK*

"Our Eleven male is Crixus Anjou, eighteen. Another one with a difficult relationship with his parents. He left home at age 13 to go live with his grandparents, but Crixus instead decided on his own to leave there to live in an orphanage. I'm unclear as to what exactly the cause of leaving the house is; all of the extant records are incredibly vague. The mother cited 'irreconcilable differences,' which is usually something you see in divorces, Crixus cited… well, he didn't really give a reason for leaving his grandparents but they signed off on it so Eleven approved it. He's definitely one to keep an eye on in the Arena, especially for one other reason that we'll talk about in a sec. Any other questions?" *CLICK*

"District Eight. Our female is Serenity Capiere, age thirteen. Her family has moved twice. Right with the redistricting her family applied for relocation to One, which was approved, but as you know, any work visas coming from Eight are denied after five years as a buffer against rebel activity, and are not renewed for a full year after the fifth one. So she moved back to Eight. There is no recorded rebel activity in her family, but protocol."

"Do we have any information on her training in One?"

"Unclear. It's likely, because she is from One, and she is on records in the Academy system, but she has no listed assessments anywhere." Madaline paused for a moment, then moved on to the next slide.

"This next one is an interesting one. The Eight male is Sage Davidson, age seventeen."

Garnet sharply breathed in.

"What's wrong?" Violet asked. "Is he a rebel? Did a rebel slip through the cracks?"

"It's not important," Garnet said. "He looks a lot like someone I once knew."

Violet narrowed her eyes, but allowed her cousin to be silent on the issue, yielding the floor back to Madaline.

"OK. So Sage used to live in Eleven, but recently moved to District Eight for a reason that… is not entirely clear on record. Sage has a history of depression in his family, but he was able to get over that by working in the fields back home. He's still trying to find an outlet in Eight, where he is living on his own with a woman named Kira Mazda, meaning that none of his family moved with him. We have no familial rebel history for Sage." Before Violet could ask any questions, Madaline progressed to the next slide.

"The next district to draw was District Three. What's interesting about Three is that both Three tributes are in pre-University programs there. That may be an interesting thing to look at for next year. The female is Sinsya Powers, age 14. She's one of the youngest members in the formal pre-U program. Sinsya is brilliant, but that's about all we know about her. Any questions re Sinsya?" *CLICK*

"Where is she originally from?" Violet asked.

"Good question. Six, I believe."

"Her partner, Alexei, thirteen, is in the advanced computer science program. It can feed into Pre-U, but not necessarily. He just started at the end of the summer, so they're still analyzing his skills, and he may have to do some work during the Events themselves. Alexei comes from Ten originally, and is very good friends from childhood with Ramona, our Ten Female. The two are pen pals; a letter came through Nine in November from Alexei to Ramona. So that's cute! Any questions about Alexei? Awesome." *CLICK*

"District Four now! Our female is Amazon Brown, age eighteen. Amazon is married to Mason Brown, and is the mother of Lucy, age three months. She moved over to Four in August, as soon as she could after she turned eighteen, with her husband, Mason; she cites concern over her parents letting her raise Lucy as a reason for moving, so I assume she also has a dicey relationship with her parents."

"Is she trained?" Violet asked.

"Yes. Wouldn't be surprised if that was encouraged by her parents. Now, one other thing. Because Amazon is still breast feeding, we gave her permission to bring Lucy with her. So there will be a baby. We're still trying to figure out what to do with the baby during the Events, but yeah. Garnet, maybe we can enlist your services?"

"Maybe," smiled Garnet. "Let's move on and think about it later."

"All right! The four male is Sol Mikkelson. Has at least some training, being from Four, and is eligible next year, as he's still eighteen. He's the child of two teenagers who had a combined six years of statutes, so he was Reaped for the 133rd Games. Then his boyfriend volunteered for him, and then his boyfriend stepped off the pedestal."

"Does anyone know why?"

"No. We generally look into the families and histories of tributes who step off, but there's nothing that indicates rebelliousness, suicidal nature, anything. I'd assume that Sol isn't quite over it now, though. Anyway, his statute then expired. Sol was adopted, and never really knew his birth parents, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's not thrilled with the current Statute system."

"But it is still new!" Garnet exclaimed.

"I know. I think he'll get that. Any other questions about Sol? Cool." *CLICK*

"The last district to draw on the first day was Seven. The female is Sawyer Burns, age eighteen. Recently engaged to Michael Lee. Sawyer does not come from the wealthiest upbringing; her mother is currently listed as working three jobs. And her brother is deaf. So an engagement to someone wealthier is going to be incredibly helpful for her family, as will the stipend from the Events. We don't have any remarkable school record from her, but she is in school. Questions on her?" *CLICK*

"The male from Seven is Morrel Elmwyner, fourteen. He's also quite smart. He applied to Pre-U programs in Six and Three, but was rejected from both of them; he could still make it in later on, but he just wasn't ready yet. He wasn't quite a Sinsya. He's very academic, it seems, and also from a fairly wealthy background; there is a record of the Elmwyners hiring tutors for Morrel almost every year, even though he was doing well academically. So expect to see him doing well even after the Events. Any questions?"

Madaline took a deep breath. She said tensely, "The next tribute is our Nine Female, drawn this morning. Sixteen-year-old Liana Klepper. Daughter of Dania and Correy, niece of Elizah and Garnet."

"Oh boy," said Garnet. "Even with the Fairness Council, there are going to be people up in arms about her."

"I'm not crazy worried. We'll just have to announce structure earlier than I planned. Plus, I think the Capitol will like her. Madaline, is there anything about Liana we don't know?"

"She was adopted, but you know that. She's a good role model, but you know that. I think you've got her covered. We'll move to Aviel Nitsa, also sixteen. Aviel's educational records are very interesting. Up until the redistricting, they're mediocre to bad. Then, his grades shoot up. I think that the existence of Six as an educational center really helped motivate him to succeed. So props for the redistricting! Wealth wise, not so wealthy, but still barely middle class. Questions about Aviel?" *CLICK*

"District Five. Female is Luna Powell, age eighteen. She's pretty smart, but not Sinsya or even Morrell smart. The big thing with Luna is a fire in her home about three years ago. We have it on record because she lived fairly close to Five's rebel stronghold, so any fires are logged in that area in case suspicious activity is on the record. There was no suspicious activity in this case; the mother made a point to tell the authorities that the fire was her fault because she put a candle too close to a curtain. Oops. We don't really have anything else to note about Luna, but that's what it is. Questions?" *CLICK*

"OK. This next one is one we need to keep an eye on. Rochas Augustus, age seventeen, Five male. Adopted when he was younger. Rochas is a member of the Save Earth Activists. The group is technically non-violent – at least they claim to be. Either way, we need to watch him. Rochas was relocated from Two to Five last year, which probably means that he had two protest strikes. That's how Save Earth handles things – two strikes means relocation. I would not be surprised to see Rochas try to use the Events as a platform for Save Earth. And I also don't know enough about how the government's environmental policies work to know which side is right. That's not my place. But keep an eye on him. Especially because he was one of the only tribute to make a huge scene during the Reapings. Questions?"

"You said he was in Two," Garnet pointed out. "Any training?"

"His sister has trained, and she was actually good enough to have her name submitted for withholding from the Drawing. I'd assume he's trained at least at little bit. because he's from Two, and their school system goes through the academies. But the amount he's been willing to train? We'll have to see. Anything else? All right." *CLICK*

"Now we move into our primary Career districts. District One. The female is Jessamine Rogers. She also moved from Eight to One, but because her family was in the small-business guild in Eight, they were able to get permanent residence. I have nothing on record about her training, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that she has some. One other important thing about Jess is her medical record. She has a very unique condition called aphantasia, which means that she cannot visualize things. I don't know if that will impact her in the Events, and I also don't know if we can do anything about it. Violet, could that be a problem?"

"There's one that will be a problem. I don't know if we can change it for her, though."

"So that's something for you to consider. But I don't have much else to say about Jess. Her district partner," Madaline moved to the next slide, "Winsley Vwystrom, who is thirteen, also has a unique ability. Winsley has prosthetic legs on both his left and his right. Was that English? You get my drift. He has some training, but spends a lot of time dancing and playing floorball; he's enrolled in specialty programs for both of those activities. Notably, his dance instructor is Lavender Aroma. Winlsey also mentioned in his drawing that he feels masculine on weekdays and feminine on weekends. Any questions on Winsley?" *CLICK*

"Four more. The Two female is Myranda Lidano. She has training, and a lot of it – Myranda is ranked sixth in her year; as an eighteen-year-old, that means she had a real chance at volunteering. I don't know to what degree she was considering what to do after she volunteered, but I would definitely be cognizant of the fact that she might be upset about not being able to enter the Games."

"Is she trained under a Victor?" asked Violet.

"No," said Madaline. "She's the first individual trainee of Dania Lidano." Madaline caught Garnet's eye, and the two shared a knowing look. "Let's move on." *CLICK*

"The Two male is named Plato Antoni, age twelve. He's also involved with training in the Academy, but did not rank significantly enough to be of note, meaning he was not submitted to be withheld from the drawing. We don't know much about him other than that. Questions? Cool." *CLICK*

"Our Capitol tributes, finally! The female is Lyric Cloud, age fifteen. Yes, as in Cloud's Composers. She has some altercations and a tattoo, et cetera. She does not train in the Academy in the Capitol, but we know that the Capitol Academy has some problems with getting trainees who aren't lazy. More on that in a second. She is very musically talented, though. So that's good. Questions?" *CLICK*

"Our Capitol male is Silas Rune, age seventeen. Silas prefers they/them pronouns, but remains in the male slot because they haven't applied to transfer. They're originally from One; their father worked in a Capitol restaurant after the redistricting and their mother stayed in One working in a jewelry store. Two years ago, Silas was given the opportunity to transfer to the Capitol academy; they were sinking in their ranking in One and the trainers here wanted some moderate to good trainees to help boost up the Capitol Academy. Even with that and a Victor, it kinda didn't work. Not to mention that Silas's ranking continued to drop in the Capitol, though less far. They're not bad by any stretch of the word, but they're probably less skilled than Myranda to say the least (after all, they trained in One and the Capitol, not Two, and they ranked tenth or so at the last check). Questions about Silas?

"Excellent. Thank you for your attention. Garnet, can I talk to you for a bit?"

"Sure. Bye, cousin Violet."

"Goodbye," said Violet suspiciously. "Thank you, Madaline."

"My pleasure."

Violet left the room, delicately slamming the door behind her.

"What are we going to do about Sage?" Madaline exclaimed.

* * *

A Timeline of the Intros

Fifteen Years, Two Months, 22 Days Before the Drawing: Mallory is born

Ten Years, Four Months Before: Aelyx is forced out of his house and moves to Two; he'll later move to Thirteen

Six years, Two months Before: Liana is adopted by the Kleppers

Six years Before: Announcement of redistricting, Jess's family prepares to move.

Five years, Seven Months Before: Crixus slaps his mom

Five years, Two Months Before: Winsley starts dance

Three Years Before: Luna's home catches on fire

Two years, Seven Months Before: Sharen goes to see her dad

Two Years, Two Months Before: Ventus moves to Six

Two Years Before: Morrel learns about the Pre-U program in Three, Silas is offered a transfer to the Capitol Academy

A Year and a Half Before: Owen volunteers for Sol

One Year Before: Nell tells her dad about the Ventus incident in the cafeteria, Sawyer gets engaged, Chloe comes out to her parents

Eleven Months Before: Amazon learns she's pregnant

Nine Months Before: Rochas's protest and transfer to Five

Seven Months, Three Weeks Before: Serenity moves to Eight

Seven Months Before: Sage is transferred to Eight

Six Months, Three Weeks Before: Ramona learns that Alexei is moving to Three

Three and a Half Months: Kitt's family's rodeo opens

Two Months Even: Alexei writes to Ramona

One Month, One Week Before: Aviel cheats and cheats

Exactly One Month Before: Lyric performs in Seven

Three Weeks Before: Henley gets her mission

Two Weeks: Alder is adorable, Sinsya chats with Xella

One Week: Lists come out in Two for Myranda

* * *

 **Yay the dossiers! I decided to include this chapter because I thought it would be a good way to have all of our competitors in one place. Is there anything interesting that you noticed here that wasn't included here? Anything you didn't see that you noticed was omitted? What's going on with Sage? Is there a reason that Madaline included the two specific non-competitors she did (and who were those people)?**

 **A note: I've only included in this chapter things that I think the Capitol would reasonably have access to, which is why we know some things from the Reaping chapters that they didn't mention here (like the fact that Silas is genderfluid – they would only know that if they had asked to be switched into the female bowl, which they didn't. Silas only mentioned his pronouns.)**

 **I decided to skip the goodbyes because only one is actually relevant, but we can go over that during the Train Ride scenes. I also don't know if I'll be able to get another chapter up until after I finish school, so around the 21** **st** **. I'll also have time to arc the story out then, which is good. Because right now I'm flailing in my head.**

 **Anyway, thanks for sticking with me. I'll see you next chapter!**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**


	21. Train Rides

_Amazon Brown, 18  
District Four Female_

* * *

Amazon waited anxiously in her goodbye room for her mentor to come and bring her to the train. She knew that Lucy was in good hands with Mason, but she'd never been away from Lucy for more than a few hours since the baby's birth. Now it would be much longer. And Amazon didn't know if she could handle it.

A knock sounded at the door. "Come in."

"Hey, Amazon. I'm Ariel, and I'll be your mentor."

"Hi."

Ariel sized up the situation. "You seem a little anxious."

"No."

"You're lying."

"I'm not anxious!"

"And I'm not a Victor. What's making you nervous? I can't mentor you if I don't know what's going on."

"I miss my baby. She's never been this long without me and she might not remember me."

"How old is she?"

"Three months."

Ariel thought for a second. "Are you going to be anxious for the whole Events if you don't have your baby with you?"

"Yes."

"Let me see what I can do." Ariel quickly swept out of the room. When she returned to Amazon's room, she had a crying baby in her hands. "Is this Lucy? The Capitol said she could be your token."

"That's her!" Amazon exclaimed. "Come here! Hi baby."

"Better?"

"Yes, thank you. I think you need to breastfeed, Lulu."

"Can she wait until we get on the train?"

"I'd say so. Thank you, Ariel."

Ariel gave her first competitor a smile. "Of course, Amazon."

"I think we're going to be good friends."

A few moments later, Ariel led Amazon and Lucy to the train. The paparazzi was all over Amazon and her baby, but Amazon kept her head down, patiently waiting for the signal to actually board. Getting on the train was a huge relief for Amazon – she just wanted to be out of the spotlight, both for her sake and for the sake of her bawling baby.

Once they got on the train, Amazon sat on a chair in the main car and sat on the couch. She pulled out her breast to allow Lucy to eat. "That's so much better, isn't it, baby?"

"Don't you feel a bit uncomfortable breastfeeding in public?" asked her district partner, sitting in a chair at the table. The train began to move.

"There's no reason that a breast should be sexualized like that." Maybe Amazon was a bit more feminist than she thought.

"But there's no reason that a penis should be out in the open."

Amazon was faced with two options. She could hold her ground, or she could yield to her district partner. The feminist in her wanted to hold her ground, but she knew that the Events would go much better for her if she maintained friendly relationships. Either way, she had a way to handle things.

"I see where you're coming from. Here, pass me that cloth." Amazon carefully placed it over her breath in such a way that Lucy could still breathe. "Is that good?"

"Yeah. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Amazon stuck out her hand. "Amazon Brown."

"Sol Mikkelson. I guess that wasn't the best first impression I made on you, it just kind of threw me off guard. I'm sorry." The two shook.

"Apology accepted."

"Are you trained?"

"I was forced to be, but didn't like it all that much. All I really want to do with my life is be a mommy and a housewife. And I get to be with this little baby."

"What's her name?"

"Lucy. She's three months old and my pride and joy. And it looks like she's finished eating." Amazon put her breast back in and removed the cloth. Then, she sat Lucy on her lap. "Do you wanna hold her?"

"Maybe not yet. Is she your token?"

"Yep." Amazon tickled Lucy's stomach, causing a cute, gummy smile to appear on her face. "She's the most precious little one too."

"Unusual token."

"She still breastfeeds. And I don't want to be away from her for that long."

Sol nodded. "I wish my parents had taken care of me that much."

Amazon instinctively changed the subject. "What's your token?"

"This paintbrush."

"It still has paint on it."

"Yeah, shamrock green paint. It's my lucky color."

"I've never heard of someone having a lucky color."

Sol shrugs. "It was Owen's favorite. I wasn't wearing it when I got Reaped, and then I started wearing it to support him after he volunteered for me. Now I have to have it on me all the time."

"Oh." Amazon felt lucky that she hadn't had as many tragedies in life as her partner did. Sure, her relationship with her family was non-existent at this point, but they had cared for her. And she had a husband who loved her and a child whom she loved more than anything in the world.

A child, realized Amazon, whom she would be taking to the Capitol with no diaper bag.

* * *

 _Aelyx Stark, 18  
District Thirteen Male_

* * *

Aelyx had a feeling that there was something suspicious about his district partner. The percentage of children in Thirteen that were in the Special Ops branch was so small that the odds of one of them being chosen were slim. But of course, one was. And somehow, he was drawn alongside her. Now, Aelyx didn't think he was rigged in. His father would have told him if that was the case. But Henley? Aelyx was less sure that she wasn't rigged into the Games.

Not that Henley would ever tell him. Because his father was her boss, he knew how disastrous it could be if a SpOps agent revealed their mission to anyone, regardless of how close they were to the SpOps branch, unless they were explicitly told to. So he could have his suspicions all he wanted, but he would never know for sure.

But it was weird that Henley had asked to be mentored separately.

So what could her mission be? SpOps missions generally related to trailing or monitoring one individual in particular. If she was rigged in, it would have had to be based on the drawing of someone who had been chosen before the Thirteen drawing. Who could it be? Meaning, who drew before Thirteen?

Aelyx snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a knock on the door. "Come in."

"Hey, Aelyx. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine. You?"

"I'm good! I'm going to bring Nissan in in a sec. He's a bit nervous about mentoring you because he thinks you're a giant. I think he'll do fine, but he is quite young, and will need more support than Khara will. Do you have any concerns?"

"No. Nissan is a Victor; he's done something that I haven't done yet and hopefully will never do. I have just as much respect for him as I would for any other Victor, and I value the experience that he has. I'm sure he'll be able to help me."

Ali nodded. "That's quite nice. I'll go bring him in."

Ali left the room, then returned with Nissan. "Aelyx, this is your mentor, Nissan."

Nissan gave Aelyx a shy wave. "Hi."

"Hello, Nissan. It's very nice to meet you. You're so brave for going into the Games and winning!"

"Thank you." Nissan looked up to Ali. "Now what do I do?" he whispered.

"You ask him to tell you about himself," Ali whispered back.

"Oh." Nissan turned back to Aelyx. "Tell me about yourself."

"Well, I lived in the Capitol for a while, then moved to Two to live with my uncle Erik. Then we moved to Thirteen with the military during the Redistricting."

"I think I know the next question," proclaimed Nissan. "Why did you move?"

Immediately, Aelyx tensed up. Ali, the experienced mentor, jumped in and said, "Sometimes it's not so good to be blunt, Nissan."

"No, it's important to say it, because the Sperm Donor might try to sponsor me or something."

"Who is the sperm donor?"

"My birth father. He kicked me out because his wife told him to. And that wife's kids were little… pricks. Little pricks," Aelyx censored himself. "I don't know if there's any sponsoring to be done, but I do not want any of them sponsoring me. I can win without their help."

"Even if they're your only sponsors?" asked Ali.

"Even if they're my only sponsors."

"You are a brave soul. All right. Let's move on. Nissan, ask Aelyx what his strengths are."

"I don't wanna ask more questions," cowered Nissan. "I don't want to make Aelyx scared again."

Aelyx bent down to Nissan's level. "Nissan, it's OK that you made a mistake on your third every question to your competitor. We all make them. I know it's a learning process for you. I can't apologize for making you nervous, because everyone has a little something that is hard for them in their history. But when you're a mentor, I think you need to know those things so you can best help your tributes. Ok?"

"OK."

"Now, what's your question?"

"What are your strengths?" said Nissan quietly.

Ali and Aelyx helped Nissan through mentoring Aelyx all the way up until dinner. By that point, Nissan was feeling much more comfortable, and so left the meeting pretty happy, leaving Ali and Aelyx behind for a little bit.

"You did well with him," Ali said to Aelyx.

"Thank you. It is a bit odd to be mentoring my mentor."

"I understand that. But it's going to be a huge help to him, and I'll be here for some of the stuff he won't really ever be able to handle. Do you have any questions that are better to ask me?"

"Actually, I do. Has anyone else drawn yet?"

Ali looked at Aelyx suspiciously. "Six is the only one. Why?"

"I was just curious."

* * *

 _Sinsya Powers, 14  
District Three Female_

* * *

Sinsya was the first to make it to the train. More than anything, she was impressed by its opulence. The carriage was much nicer than anything she'd ever seen! How could someone afford to create a train car this nice?"

A few moments later, her district partner came into the room. "You're Sinsya, right?"

"Yes."

"Hi, I'm Alexei," he said, reaching his hand out to her. "I'm in the advanced CompSci program."

"Oh, I think we may have met before. It's nice to meet you."

"You too!"

The two made pleasant, intelligent small talk until their mentors came in and sat on the couch across from them. Byte, the bolder of the two, took the lead. "OK. First question: do you want to be mentored together or separately?"

"I see no disadvantage to us going together," Alexei proposed. "I think we're going to have a better time if we have each other's support."

"Sure," added Sinsya.

"Great!" Byte smiled at Edison. "So why don't you tell us about yourselves. Alexei, you first."

"Hi! So I'm originally from Ten, then got into the Advanced CompSci program in Three. I moved last August, and I really enjoy myself! I also really like music."

"That's good. So you're a smart kid, right?"

"I mean, I guess I would say so. I did get in to advanced CompSci, after all."

"Very good. Sinsya, what about you?"

"I'm kind of the same as Alexei. I'm originally from Six, then got in to Pre-U and started about a year ago now. My specialty is math."

"What math are you taking this year?"

"Calc 2."

"That's quite impressive for a fourteen-year-old! Very nice. Now, moving on. I first want to ask what your opinions are on the Events. What do you think they're going to be like?"

Sinsya hadn't really thought about that. It was a good question. "I don't think that they'll be all that different from the Games," she suggested. "This way, they'll be in the same style as what the Capitolites are used to, which is the goal."

"But how will they do a killing Games without the killing?"

"Paintball?"

"I don't think so," disagreed Alexei. "I think they want something vastly different. This way there is no concern about things going badly."

"So how could they do a Games without killing?" Byte prompted.

"I think they'll do some form of competition. One where every competitor is as in control of their own destiny as they could be without interference from the others."

"How would they do that?" asked Sinsya.

"Maybe by having small contests as a part of a larger Events."

"But how would they have a Career pack?"

"Hm. Would the Capitol be that concerned about having a Career pack?"

"Yes."

"But see? This is why the Events are so much of a question for us," Byte said. "I think I'd agree that those are the two most likely ways for the Events to go, but it could really be anything. So let's think for a second about Alexei's model. Do you think alliances would be helpful?"

"Alliances? Maybe not," said Sinsya.

"But you can make friends in this model!" Alexei exclaimed. "Or they could still be alliances. Even within my competition structure, there might still be team competitions or ones that require an alliance of some sort. I wouldn't count allies out until we hear otherwise from someone in charge."

"Fair enough."

"How would you go about forming alliances?"

Sinsya was kind of hoping that Alexei's model didn't include allies. In hers, allies weren't necessary. See, forming allies wouldn't be Sinsya's strong suit. If there was one thing that she was not, it was particularly social. The girl was more of a book person, who thoroughly enjoyed spending time one-on-one with a math book more than with a human. If allies would be needed for the Events, she was going to have to break significantly out of her comfort zone.

"I think you two need to ally together," Byte suggested. "You're young and not so physically strong, but you're both really intelligent. If you can find one or two more kids who are smart like you and monopolize the intelligence of the Arena, you could really make a dent." The kids nodded. "Great. Let's go eat dinner!"

"Sounds good to me," smiled Alexei. Sinsya nodded again, and the group proceeded to the dining car.

* * *

 _Myranda Lidano, 18  
District Two Female_

* * *

 _Well, this could have been worse,_ thought Myranda as she boarded the train, waiting for her district partner. Sure, she wasn't going into the Games, the one thing she'd been preparing for for her whole life. But she was still going to get a chance to represent her district and make them proud. And she wouldn't die in the process! So that was promising.

"Hi, Myranda," said Arabelle, her mentor, coming onto the train. "Plato will be coming in a minute."

"Sounds good. I'm patient."

Arabelle sat on the couch next to her tribute. "How are you feeling?"

"It's a lot. I'm just glad that I still get to represent my district."

"That's the spirit. I'm glad we have an experienced trainee this year, with all of the differences and changes. It'll make things easier for all of us. Who's your trainer?"

"Dania Lidano."

"Not a Victor, then. It's impressive that you're so high up in your year."

"It was a mix of my drive and Dania's skill, I suppose."

"Did you two prepare for the Events at all? Usually I'll try to adapt to prior strategies discussed."

"Well, we do have a strategy. Win."

"Hey," smiled Arabelle. "This year, that's as good a strategy as any."

At that moment, Plato came into the room. His face was tear-stricken, his hair ruffled, and his fist clenched around something.

"Oh, Plato. Come here!" Arabelle exclaimed. The young child ran to the mentor's arms. "What happened?" Plato shook his head. "Come on, you have to tell someone." Plato shook his head again and started crying harder. "Do you miss your parents?"

"No."

"Do you miss your sibling?"

"I don't have a sibling."

"Was someone mean to you in the goodbyes?"

Plato nodded.

"Didn't you have a red barrette during the Drawing?" asked Myranda.

"Mom ripped it out of my hair. She's never accepted me as Chloe." She broke into full out tears.

Myranda had never been a girly-girl. She really didn't know if she ever wanted to be a mom. But today, her maternal instincts were out in full force. She held her hands out to Chloe, shifting the younger girl onto her lap from Arabelle's. "Come here, Chloe."

Chloe snapped her head up and looked at her district partner. "You called me Chloe."

"Yeah, because that's your name. Why wouldn't I call you Chloe?"

"Because…" Chloe stopped. "I don't know. People just… don't normally call Chloe right off the bat."

"Who have you told?"

"My three friends. Minnie and Marci and Saturn. Minnie was pretty instant. Marci took a bit longer. Saturn is still having trouble."

"Have you told your parents?"

Chloe nodded. "But they…"

"…they don't accept you. You said that already."

Tears formed in the girl's eyes again. "It's been a year. They said I had to win the Games to earn the right to be called Chloe."

Myranda rearranged Chloe so that the two were looking in each other's eyes. "Listen to me, Chloe. You are Chloe, and nobody else. If you identify as a girl, it is your right to be called a girl. I know it's hard being so young and under your parents, because you don't have a ton of autonomy. But this is the opportunity to come out as Chloe and be very firm with your identity."

"If you want," Boebette chimed in, "I can contact the Capitol and let them know about your identity. Ruby is very adamant about everyone identifying as they identify, so she can tell the broadcasters."

"But I don't know if I want to completely separate myself from my parents."

"Would you rather all of Panem call you by your deadname?"

"No, but…"

Hannibal stepped in. "Chloe. When tributes enter the Games, everyone comes out different. Some come out as Victors, who are scarred somehow. And some come out dead. But everyone's different. To take 28 kids out of their homes, even if they're not going to die, and putting them all in one place is going to change all of them. But you already know how you want to come out. You want to come out as undeniably Chloe. And the way we're going to do that is tell the broadcasters that you're Chloe. It's going to be tough, but we're all going to support you. If your parents kick you out, you'll come live in the Village with us. We're going to make you feel like yourself."

"OK."

Arabelle smiled at the little girl. "Come on. Let's get you dressed up."

The females in the team whisked Chloe off into the living quarters. Myranda found a dress for Chloe to wear, Arabelle did her makeup, and Boebette styled her hair a little bit. "Maybe we can get you extensions when we get to the Capitol. Would you like that?"

"Maybe?"

"I'm guessing you're still a little nervous, right, Chloe?" Myranda asked.

"A bit. But I do feel more confident in this dress."

"That's the spirit. We're your support team. We'll help you through this. We'll make sure you're Chloe, Chloe."

"Chloe. Yeah, I am Chloe."

There was something nice for Myranda about supporting a younger girl. Women needed to stick together, and Chloe really needed an older role model to look to. Myranda, not so much of a girly-girl, wasn't sure if she was really the right role model for the kind of girl Chloe wanted to be. But for as long as Chloe needed, she would be there for her.

* * *

 **Here are our train rides! I know there's a weird combination of districts here, but I've got a lot planned later on, so this is what it had to be. What did you think of the chapter? What will Amazon do about the diaper bag? Is Aelyx right about Henley? Will Sinsya and Alexei need allies? How will Myranda do as a role model for Chloe?**

 **We move into the chariot rides next. I'm very excited for this chapter, because it's going to be quite different from many previous chariot rides. Can't wait for you to see!**

 **Thanks for all of your support!**

 **-goldie031**


	22. Opening Ceremonies

_Luna Powell, 18  
District Five Female_

* * *

"Five minutes to the Capitol!" yelled Boris through the District Five train.

"Didn't we just leave Five?" asked Luna.

"I know. It does seem fast this year," echoed Phoebe, her mentor.

"I think it's because, when we have a Reaping, they keep the train super slow so that everyone can arrive at about the same time," explained Lyla.

"Why do they always do the Reaping on the same day?" Luna asked.

"So that everyone gets it over with at the same time."

"So why'd they switch it?"

"Nobody is in danger of dying, and it's eco-friendlier for the trains to go at full speed."

"You're damn right it's eco-friendlier," Rochas exclaimed. "It'd be most eco-friendly if they didn't have these damned Events or Games so that they wouldn't have to travel and use up fuel."

"Rochas," cautioned Boris, "you have to be careful what you say when you get out of here. We don't want you to lose sponsors by insulting the Capitolites."

"I can say whatever I damn want. The Capitol is the biggest single source of light pollution and energy use in the districts even if we're using solar and wind power. If I'm going to get this platform, I'm going to use it to spread my message and make those scumbags do things better."

Luna wasn't sure whether or not she'd agreed with Rochas's message. He'd only talked about it for the entire time that they'd been on the train together. (And there had only been one car, because the tributes weren't staying over.) On the one hand, she understood the importance of using less electricity and more candles to save the environment; if there was only one earth, and so much of it had been destroyed, they needed to save the little that it had left. On the other hand, one candle had destroyed her whole home. Electricity was so much safer. So, while she thought Rochas's focus on the environment was important, it was better for her to continue to support electricity until there were renewable energy sources everywhere, not just in Five.

Lyla sighed, then turned to Luna. "You're our best shot this year, my friend. Don't mess it up."

Luna smiled. "No promises."

A few moments later, the train pulled into the station. "All right, Luna stand here, Rochas, here. Remember, this is the first time the Capitolites here are seeing you – there hasn't been any broadcasting of the Drawings yet. So make a good first impression. Smile and wave, then follow me into the Remake Center."

Luna nodded. She glanced at Rochas, who did not look happy, then turned back to the doors, ready to meet the paparazzi.

When the doors opened, Luna and Rochas took two steps out of the train to allow their mentors and escort to get out. Luna did what Boris advised: smile, wave, and just generally be sweet. Unfortunately for her, Rochas did not. He held up the sapling that he'd brought as his token, launching into a tirade about how there were no places to plant it anywhere because of the construction and wasting of natural resources. Boris ended up having to push a screaming Rochas into the Remake Center, Luna smiling and waving behind them.

Luna hoped Rochas knew about District Seven. There were lots of trees there.

After Boris had gotten Rochas sedated – nope, settled with his prep team, he brought Luna over to her station. "Luna, these are Aisha, Orit, and Ner. They'll be your prep team today."

"Nice to meet you," Luna said, reaching her hand out to her prep team, expecting them to shake it. Instead, Orit pulled Luna into the room, closed the door, and took off Luna's top in one fluid motion.

"We have little time. This new carriage thing cuts us down by an hour. Let's get going. Strip!"

Luna's prep team busied around her, scrubbing the dirt off of her body and plucking off the unneeded hair until her body was pristine. She was a bit unsure whether to like it or not. On the one hand, Luna enjoyed beautifying herself, as she figured every teen girl did. On the other hand, Luna was being plucked and prodded to within an inch of her life. But she needed to cooperate so that her prep team could get her ready. After all, the parade was an extremely important first impression.

"All right, it looks like you're finally ready!" exclaimed Aisha. "We'll go get Lahainah now."

"Lahainah?"

But the team was already gone. A few moments later, Lahainah came into the room. "Hello, Luna."

Instinctively, Luna pulled back from Lahainah. She knew it wasn't anything about the woman's personality; Luna remembered liking Lahainah back when she was in the Selection. Before the fire happened.

Because Lahainah was the walking personification of Luna's biggest fear: fire.

* * *

 _Liana Klepper, 16  
District Nine Female_

* * *

Well, this whole Events thing was quite ironic. Liana had literally been in the Capitol two days prior, on January 24, for the Victory Ball. She'd taken a hovercraft back to Nine the day before, and now she was back in the Capitol again to compete in the Events to represent… Nine.

She'd barely even had a second to breathe.

But now, she was in a comfortable place. Not necessarily a happy place, but a familiar one. If there was one thing that Liana was used to, it was being styled, even if she didn't really like it.

See, Liana wasn't huge on the whole "be a proper lady and a role model" thing on which her mother insisted. But it kind of came with the family into which she'd been adopted. And Liana was certainly grateful to have been adopted by her parents. She just had to wait until she got a little bit older and could leave her parents' home to be her own person.

For the time being, though, styling was a part of her life. And in the craziness of the Events, it was nice to have something familiar. Then again, being in the spotlight was something quite familiar to Liana. Since she was adopted, she was as much the center of the nation's attention as any blood descendants of the Emeralds. Not only was she Garnet's niece, but she was Dania's daughter. Liana didn't quite know why Dania was so famous; she knew that her mother was in the Selection, but there wasn't a ton of footage left from it, so Liana didn't know all of the details, especially because Dania didn't talk about it a ton.

Maybe she'd be able to learn more during her time in the Capitol.

"That really did not take much time at all," smiled Jerri, one of Liana's prep team members, breaking her out of her thoughts.. "We barely had to do any work on you."

"Now, let's get you into a bath," said Gerri, the second prep team mentor. "We have time, and you can relax that way!"

"Then you'll be all ready for your stylist! Just don't get your hair wet!" Jerry, the last prep team member, finished. They rushed Liana to a bathtub and busied around her, twittering about what the best bath for her would be.

That was the one thing Liana wasn't really used to: a prep team. They hovered around her like gnats, finishing each other's work and sentences, and were about as useful as gnats were. Things were a lot simpler at home when it was just her and her stylist. Now, there were three other people there to help her get ready. And it was a lot. Liana didn't even know if she would have her stylist.

After her bath, which was nice and relaxing, Liana put on a plushy robe and was escorted back to her room. "Your stylist will be here in a minute," said Gerri. Or Jerri. They were twins, and Liana couldn't tell them apart. "We'll be right back."

It was amazing how much quieter the room got when the prep team left.

A few moments later, Liana's stylist came into the room. She was thrilled to find that it was her personal stylist, Jamielle Korecki! "I thought you weren't gonna do the Events this year," Liana exclaimed giving her stylist a hug. The two had known each other since Liana was adopted six years ago, and had gotten very close in the process.

"I wasn't. Until you got picked."

"Why'd they just shift it over to you? Isn't this stuff planned weeks in advance?"

"Because the woman who was the Nine stylist happens to be a very close friend of mine. Anyway. Mind if I take a look?"

"Not at all." Liana slid off her robe. Jamielle quickly looked to see if any major changes had happened to Liana's body; when she was satisfied, she nodded to her competitor, who put the robe back on. "All right. So this year, they're doing things a little bit differently for the chariots, because someone realized that it would be a horrible idea to have tributes dressed scantily, outside, in the cold. So, instead, we're going to be presenting you in moving snow globes!"

"Oh. Cool?"

"Yeah!" Jamielle was clearly excited. "Our task is to present each district in a wintery scene that relates to their district industry. So we were having some trouble figuring it out, but then we came up with an idea. Do you know who Santa Claus is?"

"He's the ancient representative of Christmas, right?"

"Yes. A long time ago, a little girl wrote a letter to the editor of her local newspaper asking him if Santa Claus was real. Now, Santa obviously isn't real. But the editor wrote back to her that there is a Santa Claus, and that he exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. A few years later, an American store ran a national campaign based on that letter, and they had a drawing of that girl that became the emblem of sorts for the innocence of children or whatever. So, you're going to be that little girl, and Aviel is going to be a Christmasy mailman from Santa Claus who is going to pick up the letter. Sound good?"

"How are we gonna breathe in the snowglobes?"

"There are some holes in the glass for ventilation, plus some heating elements and oxygen pumps inside to help keep you warm and also to help circulate the fake snow. It's all gonna be great. Let's get ready!"

* * *

 _Alder Howe, 12  
District Twelve Male_

* * *

"You were very cooperative, Alder," said his stylist, Rosa. "I'm very impressed."

"Thank you!" the boy exclaimed, bouncing up and down in his seat.

"Do you have any questions for me before we go downstairs?"

"Yeah. How is it decided who gets which stylist?"

Rosa smiled. "Well, that's a long answer. Can you sit through it?"

"I think so."

"All right. So, if you're seventeen or eighteen, you get a stylist of the same gender as you were Reaped or Drawn as. That's a rule Ruby initiated after the Fifth Quell for privacy, safety, and general appropriateness reasons. After that, the stylists who have Victors but still want to style tributes are assigned to their Victors' districts. Afterwards, stylists get placed fairly randomly. Now that Ruby's in charge, she prefers to do it randomly so that styling is less competitive. Requests will sometimes be taken into account, but not always because of the age/gender issue. Does that all make sense?"

"Yah. That wasn't a long answer."

"Alder, you ripped your pants while I was talking to you."

"Whoops."

Rosa quickly sewed up the hole, then carried Alder down to the staging area in the basement of the remake center. When they got there, Rosa scanned the order of the snow globes to find the globe for Twelve. "How do you know which one is ours?"

"Because the bases of the globes are in the appropriate district color."

"What are the district colors?"

"Didn't you learn that in school?"

"Maybe I got distracted by a truck. Plus I get the new ones confused."

Rosa smiled. "So, I'll tell you. The Capitol is gold, District One is silver, Two is red, Three is yellow, Four is a royal blue, Five is orange, Six is white, Seven is forest green, Eight is purple, Nine is baby blue, Ten is pink, Eleven is brown, Twelve is mint green, and Thirteen is black. Got it?"

"I got distracted by the Ten snow globe."

Rosa smiled. "Oh, Alder. Ah, crud. I have to go for a sec. Stay right here, and don't mess up your pants."

"OK."

Rosa gave Alder a little glare, then dashed back into the remake center to grab something.

Alder tried to stay still. He really tried. But he was just energetic and incredibly antsy and Sharen wasn't down yet! Luckily, Alder noticed that another district's team had also come down, and one of them looked really young. Like his age! Alder carefully ran over to talk to the other boy.

"Hi," Alder said. "I'm Alder."

"I'm Nissan. Nice to meet you!"

"Where are you from?"

"Thirteen."

"Ooh, that's cool!" exclaimed Alder. "I'm from Twelve."

"Neat. Are you the competitor from Twelve?"

"Yeah. You're not?"

"No. I'm a Victor," Nissan explained.

"Oh. That's cool!"

"Thank you." A small, awkward pause followed. "What do you like to do?"

"I like trucks. I like watching trucks and playing with trucks and all that stuff."

"Trucks, I guess, are cool."

"They're more than cool. They're literally the best! Especially garbage trucks. Do you get trucks in Thirteen?"

"A little bit. But not when we're underground."

"Whoa. Thirteen is underground?"

Nissan cocked his head. "Yeah. We do lots of stuff underground. Didn't you learn that in school?"

"I guess that was also garbage day. I get distracted by the trucks."

Nissan scanned the other snow globes. "These snow globe things are pretty cool."

"Are you riding in one too?"

"No. I'm gonna ride on a chariot. Ariel, who won with me, and I are the marshals of the parade."

"You're gonna freeze!"

"They say they're gonna warm the chariot."

Alder was getting really antsy. "Do you have any toys?"

"Not on me."

The Twelve boy started jumping up and down. "I need something to play with or I'm gonna freak! And I can't rip my pants again or Rosa will get mad at me! I brought a tennis ball with me but now I don't have it because I 'might break something' or whatever."

At that moment, the boy from Eleven approached the young kids. "Do you want something to play with, Alder?" Alder violently nodded. "Here, maybe you can fiddle with this coin."

"Doesn't it have sentimental value for you?"

"No. I just happened to have it on me because I was going to go buy some food after the Drawing. If you still have it at the end of the chariots, give it back to me, OK?" Alder nodded. "I'm Crixus. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Alder. Nice to meet you too!"

Crixus's district partner smiled. "I thought you said you didn't like children," she said.

Alder didn't know what to make of the comment. But he was perfectly content to fiddle with the coin until he could get back to his tennis ball.

* * *

Harli Saleman sat at the desk next to her co-host, Dorian Muir. The two had lost track of how long they'd spent together as host and announcer, respectively, and had truly grown to enjoy spending time together.

"You ready for another round?" Dorian asked.

"Yep. As ready as I'll ever be. I've heard the outfits for this one are really out there."

"They're themed, right?"

"Winter themed. And everyone's in a giant snow globe."

"Because that's normal."

"I think Ruby wanted to change up the format from the normal Games. Make a point. Plus, this way the competitors can stay warm. They can heat the snow globes up."

"Fair. But I still think the snow globes are silly."

Harli and Dorian sat for a few light, camera, and mic checks, then had a few minutes to decompress before they got their notes on the chariot costumes to help the audience understand the more unusual ones. After reading them over, they waited for the signal that it was time to go live.

"Good evening, Panem, and welcome to the opening ceremonies for the First Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events! I'm Harli Saleman, back with you."

"And I'm Dorian Muir. We're so glad that you've joined us after the recap of today's drawings. In just a few moments, you'll see all of our competitors, live, for the first time! How exciting!"

"Let's go down to the parade route and get this thing underway!"

The opening music played. The doors of the Remake Center opened. It was time for the parade to begin.

"First, we have the marshals of our parade, Ariel and Nissan, our newest Victors! They're dressed as an ice king and queen," exclaimed Harley.

"Yep! Ariel is wearing a lovely, long, ice blue dress, and Nissan is in an ice blue military outfit. They both have ice blue capes with a furry neck thing, and are holding a frosty orb and scepter. They're seated on giant thrones that look like they're made of ice, and are wearing their Victory crowns!"

"It's great to see them looking so confident there."

"I hope they're not freezing! It's quite cold outside."

Dorian checked his notes. "Now, as you know, Harli, we randomize the order of the chariots. So it's just coincidence that our next district is One! And it looks like they're not in a chariot, but in a snow globe!"

"That's a new take on parade vehicles. The snow globe, which has a fitting silver base and silver confetti floating around in it like snow, features Winsley and Jessamine wearing what I can only describe as ugly Christmas sweaters."

"That's right, Harli. Winsley is wearing a red sweater, and Jess is wearing a green sweater. Each has a giant, shiny, silver one on the front, with gold beading around it. I think they also have little white pom poms and bells around the bottom."

"For a district so focused on fashion, these are certainly not the prettiest outfits."

"Next up is a yellow-based snow globe, which means that we're seeing our friends from Three!"

"Sinsya and Alexei are dressed up as snowflakes. That's pretty lame and not connected to Three at all."

"Wait… wait… ooh, look! The snowflakes are lighting up!"

"There are all these pretty colors and patterns snowing up! That's actually really cool. And it looks like the snow in the snow globe itself is projected or something like that. I don't understand the technology. But it's cool!"

"Dorian, the crowd's cheers just got so much louder. Do you know what that means?"

"It means that District Nine has come in, with Aviel and hometown favorite Liana Klepper, Garnet Emerald's niece! Rosy-cheeked Liana is wearing a baby blue coat, black tights, and black Mary Janes, and a blue barrette with a yellow pattern clipped into her hair. She's putting a letter into an oversized red mailbox as the snow falls around her. And ready to pick up her letter is Aviel, in a mailman's uniform and a red hat with a white pom pom."

"It seems as though this is a reference to ancient Christmas advertisements, as Liana is writing a letter asking if Santa is real!"

"Wouldn't we all like to know the answer to that?"

"Next up is District Seven. Sawyer and Morrel are all bundled up in cute winter hats, scarves, mittens, and earmuffs, drinking hot cocoa outside of a little log cabin in the woods!"

"I love how there's smoke coming out of the chimney that is also coming out of the vents! It's such a nice touch. And there's snow falling, and all of the trees have such nice a dusting of snow! Oh, Harli, I just love winter!"

The snow globes continued to make their way down the road.

"Our next district is Thirteen. Henley and Aelyx are dressed up as nutcracker soldiers, complete with rifles! I don't know how the stylists managed to do that."

"It's a fitting costume for our military district! I love their shiny red shoulder pads – it really makes them look like painted wood soldiers! And their face makeup is phenomenal as well," gushed Dorian.

"And keeping with our nutcracker theme, check out the District Eleven snow globe right behind them. Mallory is dressed like the Sugar Plum Fairy from the traditional ballet _The Nutcracker_ , and Crixus is dressed as her Cavalier."

"He does not look happy to be in that outfit, Harli."

"Well, what male wants to be wearing tights?"

"I also love how this snow globe is decorated to look like a candy land, complete with giant sugar plums to hammer home the point. I even think it's actually snowing sugar! This is a good look for a district that so often struggles to find good chariot costumes. Big thumbs up!"

"Now, some of you may not know this, but the biggest sport that our students in Six play is hockey! So, representing two of our universities in Six are Ventus and Nell, dressed up as hockey players!"

"That's right, Harli. Ventus is wearing the black and gold of Panem U, and Nell is wearing the red and yellow of Panem A&M! We're thrilled to see them representing the school spirit that our biggest universities are so well known for!"

"The two of them are doing an impressive job of holding a face-off pose as the ice under their feet spins in a circle. My one complaint is that we can't really see their faces because of the big cages on their helmets. It's a bit odd to me. We want to be able to see our awesome competitors!"

"Now, this District Twelve chariot is a little unusual. It looks like there's a blue police box in the middle. Alder is wearing a brown tweed jacket with elbow patches, black trousers, black, ankle-high boots, and a bow tie. And Sharen is wearing a blue long-sleeve shirt over a white blouse that pokes out from the bottom, black jeans, and black heeled boots. They seem to be fighting a bunch of evil snowmen using. What does this have to do with medicine?"

Harli smiled. "This is a clever one by the Twelve stylists. Obviously, medicine is really hard to portray in a winter theme. So, they chose instead to display a scene from the TV show _Doctor Who_! This is from an episode called 'The Snowmen.' Alder is the Eleventh Doctor and Sharen is Clara. I couldn't tell you what the episode is about, but there ya go."

"Aha. That is a very clever one. Better than my best guess."

"Which was?"

"Zombies."

"Let's move on. Check out this next chariot from Ten! Kitt and Ramona are bundled up in winter clothing, as still as statues among a bunch of animatronic animals in a snow-covered birch forest!"

"It doesn't snow quite that much in Ten, which makes it hard to find anything winter related, but it's cool to see this interpretation of wildlife and animals in a winter way!"

"Aww, look at our pair from Eight! Sage and Serenity are also dressed in fashionable winter outfits, and they're building a snowman! Well, Sage is. Serenity looks like she'd be having more fun doing anything but that."

"This is also a very clever theme. You may remember a few years back, right after the redistricting, Eight was still trying to figure out what processed products it could sell successfully. So, they made these snowman kits that came with two black buttons, an orange pipe, two brown, plastic arms, and a black top hat. It failed miserably."

"Really?" Harli marveled. "I don't remember that."

"You must not have been paying too much attention. They mass-produced so many kits and, like, five sold, because you don't need a kit to build a snowman. This is a lighthearted response to that."

"I wonder if Eight approves of this costume, though, if the product was that much of a disaster."

"Well, it can't be that bad."

"Take a look at our next district, Dorian! It's District Five's Luna and Rochas hanging twinkly lights on a house!"

"Things don't look to be going well in there, though. Rochas is yelling, but I can't quite make out what he's saying even though there are some holes in the globe. And Luna looks really nervous."

"Hey, have you ever tried to hang lights like that, Dorian? It's a pain. If one bulb goes out, you have to test every single one, and maybe even replace all of them. It's natural to be nervous. Plus, if Rochas falls off of the roof, that would be very bad."

"Now, the next snow globe would have been cute if it had come before Five's, but we randomize, so oh well. District Two's Chloe and Myranda are dressed as gingerbread construction workers building their own gingerbread house!"

"As you saw in the Drawing Recap earlier, Chloe was drawn as a male named Plato. But she identifies as Chloe, a female, so make sure not to misgender her!"

"I hope that those two don't make a mess of that big bag of royal icing! Oh, and Chloe is losing her balance… and she fell. And she got icing all over Myranda. That looks messy."

"Oh my gosh, Dorian! Look at the District Four snow globe. Amazon and Sol are dressed up as eskimos, complete with fuzzy hoods, going ice skating. And little Lucy is sitting on her mother's lap in her own eskimo costume!"

"I hope Amazon is keeping an eye on her daughter, Harli. The last thing we want is for that little baby to overheat."

"But she's so cute in that fluffy costume. Now, why does Sol have a long brush stroke of shamrock green paint on his back? Is it some kind of Eskimo symbol?"

"I couldn't tell you, Harli."

"Well, Dorian, we only have one snow globe left, and it's getting the most cheers of any of them! Welcome our Capitol competitors, Lyric Cloud and Silas Rune!"

"The two of them are dressed as famous winter characters from ancient children's movies that have recently made a major comeback. Lyric is Elsa from _Frozen_ , and Silas is Jack Frost from _The Guardians_!"

"These outfits are a perfect bookmark to the ice king and queen from the beginning of the parade. I wonder if that was their stylists' intention."

"Well, that was a lovely array of winter outfits. Now, let's send it down to Ariel, Nissan, and President Emerald to declare the Events open!"

* * *

Ruby had had a minor heart attack when she saw that Liana on the District Nine snow globe, as she hadn't watched the Drawings. But while she expected her fellow Capitolites to be furious that she had an advantage, they'd cheered so loudly for her. Ruby hoped that Nine had had the same or a similar reaction.

Once all of the snow globes had arrived at the City Circle, little hatches in the front opened, all facing the President's box, where Ruby and her family had been joined by Ariel and Nissan. Ruby stood at her podium, took a deep breath, and began her short address.

"Good evening, Panem. I am thrilled to open these inaugural Events. We thank our competitors for taking time out of their busy schedules back home to represent their Districts here on the biggest stage in the country. We are hopeful that these Events will eventually lead to a more unified, more peaceful Panem. Now, if our marshals will approach the podium." Ariel and Nissan did so. "I, President Ruby Emerald, with the support of Ariel Marsh and Nissan Triska, hereby declare open the First Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events! We are so excited for the amazing things the next few weeks will bring."

* * *

 **Here are our chariot outfits! Which ones were your favorites? Were there any that you didn't get or like? Were the snow globes a good or dumb idea?**

 **I don't have a ton to say about this chapter, but next one is super important, because it will go over the entire format of the Events. So keep an eye out for it coming up later this week. You also may have noticed that the story now has a cover! More info to come on what it symbolizes.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you soon as things get closer to getting underway!**

 **-goldie031**


	23. The Rules and Logistics

_Alexei Roth, 13  
District Three Male_

* * *

Once the snow globes pulled into the Training Center, Alexei and Sinsya's entire teams descended on the Three globe to disconnect the two from their snowflakes. There were an unbelievable number of wires being used to connect everything, meaning that Alexei and Sinsya couldn't really move, lest they get themselves tangled up or one of them fall down and break the snowflake. So now it was just a matter of waiting for everyone else to finish what they needed to do.

In the middle of the process, a pleasant female voice blared on the loudspeakers throughout the Training Center. "Attention. Will all competitors, mentors, escorts, and stylists please meet in the conference room on the fifteenth floor of the Training Center in half an hour. Thank you."

"What's that about?" Alexei asked Edison, who was standing alongside the globe but not doing anything.

"I have no idea. I didn't even know the Training Center had a fifteenth floor!"

"It's probably new," Byte jumped in. "I didn't know it existed either. Concordia, Mara, are you going to be done in half an hour?"

"We're almost done with Alexei now, and then we'll get started on Sinsya. I'd say we can be done in twenty minutes at most, right, Concordia?" said Mara, Alexei's stylist.

"I think so."

Concordia and Mara kept working on the wires. Alexei payed close attention to what they disconnected from what; he figured he could learn at least something about computers or engineering from what they were doing. That was the mark of a good student: trying his best to learn from everything around him.

"All right, Alexei. You're good!" Mara proclaimed.

"Can I go upstairs?" Alexei asked. "That way I can get a snack before the meeting and change out of this bodysuit."

"I'm OK with it," Edison said.

"Maybe go with him?" suggested Byte.

Edison nodded. Alexei and Edison made their way to the elevator together and went up to the third floor. Alexei quickly changed into jeans and a t-shirt, then Edison ordered him an apple to have as a snack before the two made their way up to the fifteenth floor.

Alexei was something like the tenth competitor to arrive at the conference room. When he got there, Alexei noticed that the seats had been assigned; his seat was right in front of the door. Looking across the table, on the other end of the room from the door, he saw Sage; Alexei gave the older boy a small wave. Then, he looked at the nameplate of the competitor to his left.

It was Ramona! What were the odds that the two of them would be drawn together for the Events? Alexei hadn't watched the Drawings, and his snow globe was ahead of Ten's, so he hadn't seen her at all yet. Things just got infinitely better.

When Ramona came in, Alexei jumped up and gave her a big hug. "Ramona, you're here!"

"Alexei?"

"Yep, that's me!"

"I didn't know that you got picked."

"I didn't know you got picked! This is gonna be awesome. We're gonna have so many fun adventures."

"I'm so happy I have a friend here."

The two spent some time catching up as the other competitors trickled in. Once everyone and their teams were settled in, Violet Emerald, who was stationed in between Chloe and Luna, stood up and began to address the crowd.

"Good evening, everyone. For those who don't know me, my name is Violet Emerald, and I am the Head Gamemaker, of sorts, for the Events. I'd like to welcome you to something that we're doing for the Events that we do not do for the Games, because the format of the Events can change year-to-year in a way that the format of the Games generally will not. In our pre-Events meeting, this being the first of an annual pattern, we will go over the format of the next few days, the structure of the Events, and then we will go through the Color Selection process. But more on that later.

"First, going through the next few days. The format will basically be the same as the Games. We will have three days of training for you to sharpen the skills you'll need for the Events. Then, we will have a day to hang out here and prepare for the interviews. You'll have your interviews the following day, and then the Events will begin! Fairly straight-forward, if I do say so myself. Are there any questions about that? Excellent. Now we'll move on to the format of the Events.

"When we look at the Events, we look at a number of factors to categorize them.

"Each day of the Events will hold either one or two competitions. Your placement in each competition will correspond to a number of points. If there are two competitions in one day, the winner of the smaller competition, which will be in the morning, will receive 28 points, the second-place finisher 27, et cetera. The afternoon competition will be worth double the points; the first-place finisher will receive 56, the second-place finisher 54, et cetera. If there is only one competition, it will be worth triple the points of a normal competition, so the number one finisher will receive 84 points, the second-place finisher 81, et cetera. Does the points system make sense? If not, it will become clearer after the beginning of the Events. There will be two weeks of competitions, after which we will have a day for recuperation, a day of the final interviews, and then you'll return home. During the events, you'll stay in individual townhouses in the Arena."

"The competitions are linked by a common theme, which will be revealed at the beginning of the Events. These competitions are meant to test a variety of skills, so no one person, in theory, should have an advantage in all of them. If there are two competitions in one day, the competitors' placement in the morning competition may have an effect on their ability to complete their evening competition; the winner of the morning competition may have an advantage, and the last-place finisher a disadvantage.

"However, that will not be the only source of points. At various points during the Events, the viewers all over Panem will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite competitors. Eventually, those points will be factored in to the final score, equaling about thirty percent of the final score. What this means is that the audience participation will have a significant role, but cannot single-handedly overthrow, so to speak, what a competitor can accomplish on their own. Are there any questions?"

"Are the final numbers based on percentages or points?" asked Byte.

"More likely the raw numbers, but that depends on the number of votes we get."

"Will you be disclosing the final numbers, and the scheme you've used to calculate the percentages?" asked Phoebe Nightingale.

"That is up to the President. I would expect that she would, and if she doesn't, there will be a statement by the Games Fairness Council assuring that everything was calculated fairly. Anything else?"

"Are there any eliminations?" asked Sarah Sheaf.

"No. Everyone will compete in every competition. Yes?"

"Can competitors impact other competitors?" asked Asha.

"What do you mean?"

"Like in the Games, every tribute's actions will directly or indirectly impact another tribute, and you could be doing incredibly well but lose because of what someone else does."

"Well, in any competition, it's hard for anyone to be completely in control of their own fate. The competitors will be competing in competitions individually, though potentially in teams and potentially directly against another person. So as much as possible, competitors won't really impact others, but it is inevitable that each competitor's placement will impact the others'. Any other questions?"

"Will the competitors have any sense of the competitions beforehand?" Arabelle Pick asked.

"They may be able to tell based on the stations in the training areas, but we will not tell them outright until right before. But we will make sure that everyone fully understands the rules of each competition before it begins, as well as the points available in it. Any more questions? Good. Please, feel free to ask me if you have any more questions. Additionally, if you have any problems with the format or any of your team members, I am the person to talk to. Now, we'll move on to color selection."

* * *

 **Oop! Cliff-hanger, of sorts! We'll get into color selection next chapter. I just wanted to make sure that all of the rules and logistics of the story were in the same chapter, both how they'll work in the story universe and how they'll work practically. Lots of details here, so bear with me.**

 **First off, the competitions. As I mentioned in the chapter, each competitor will be awarded points based on the competition, as well as the size of the competition. Those points are what I'm going to use to determine the final order. But how am I going to determine how the tributes place? Well, that's going to depend on the competition. Based on what the competition entails and the stats that I asked for in the tribute form, I will determine the fairest way. I'll then post the format that I used at the bottom of the chapter, so I'm being as with transparent as possible. I won't post all of the results of my calculations, but I will be saving them so that I can send them to anyone who has questions. Now, even though I'll mostly be using randomizers, I do reserve the right to manipulate the numbers I get based on the statistics I've received; it doesn't make sense for someone who received a 1 in memory to beat someone who got an 8.**

 **In terms of the audience points. You're going to represent the Panemian public! Yay! You're going to vote on your top 7 competitors at various points in the story that Panemians would, like after the chariots or the interviews.**

 **The competitor rankings you have done and will do will determine the points that a competitor gets. So, if you ranked a competitor in the 1 slot, that competitor will receive 7 points, the 2 slot gets 6 points, et cetera. Once I've received all the points, I'll add them together for each competitor and multiply by 0.3. Then, I'll take the total number of points received in the Events and multiply that by 0.7, then add those two together to get the final number.**

 **Make sense? Again, if you have any questions, please let me know. I know it's a lot of numbers, but I want to be as transparent as possible with you guys because I value all of your participation in the story.**

 **I think that's all the logistics on my end. If I think of anything else, I'll add it in in a later chapter. Having said that, TIME FOR ANOTHER CHECK-IN!**

 **IMPORTANT NOTE: I have changed the column names on the spreadsheet. The leftmost column is still the column in which you should place your top-ranked competitor, who will receive seven points. So, for the SECRET WORD, tell me this: If you want to award a competitor three points, which column from the left should you indicate them in? The form link is still on my profile. I will also be sending PMs out just to make sure that everyone is doing the ranking right this time around.**

 **All right, that was a lot of information. Please reach out to me if you have any questions about any of this. I know it's a lot. Next chapter is gonna be a bit more fun with our color selection. I'll see you then!**

 **-goldie031**


	24. Color Selection

_Sharen Cantiano, 16  
District Twelve Female_

* * *

"Now, we'll move on to color selection.

"For these Events, each of you will be selecting a color to represent them for the entire duration of the Events. You will wear that color, beginning tomorrow, for the Events' duration, and all of your playing pieces and supplies will be in that color. So I would advise choosing one you like, or at least one you can tolerate.

"In the future, the order of selection will be based on placement in the prior year's Events. So, if the Eight female wins, then next year's Eight female will choose her color first. However, this obviously doesn't help us out this year where we haven't had the Events previously. Instead, we decided to go by something none of you have control over: your ages. Luna, to my left, will go first, as she is the oldest competitor, and we'll keep going around the table until we get to Chloe, our youngest."

Violet pressed a button. A small tablet and an opaque white-ish globe popped up in front of every competitor. "Use the color picker on your monitor to choose a color you'd like. Remember that no two of you can have colors that are too close, which means that it is a bit of this is first come first serve. I'll give you a bit of time to choose a color, and then we'll reconvene."

Sharen looked to her monitor, immediately knowing what color she was going for: a primary green. She fiddled through the color picker until she found the shade she was looking for. Then, she glanced at the people to her sides. Aviel, to her right, seemed confident in his selection. Henley, to Sharen's left, seemed to be debating. Sharen noticed Henley's screen suddenly light up, casting a bright white glow on Henley's face. A moment later, the glow disappeared. Sharen figured that Henley was just temporarily looking at white as a color before moving back to darker options, so didn't think much of the other flash of light.

"Is everyone ready?" Violet asked. The competitors nodded. "Great. Once it's your turn, you'll read me your hex code, which consists of six letters and numbers, so I can put the color up on the big screen. Then, you'll press the little green button at the bottom left of your screen, and your light will light up in your color! Let's begin with Luna."

"Before I start, does anyone have a particular color that they really need to have?" Luna asked.

Sol raised his hand. "Shamrock green is my lucky color. If I don't have shamrock green, I'm not going to do well in any competition. There is not a chance. Please, nobody pick it!"

"All right. Good! I'd like to submit magenta, hex code FF00FF, please."

Violet nodded. "Sounds good. As you have the first choice, there's no problem, so you can feel free to push the button. Next, Sawyer."

"I'd like this purple, please," Sawyer said. "Code 824ED2."

"Sounds good. You're clear to press the button. Amazon."

"This light-ish pink here, FF69B3."

Violet used her monitor to pull up Luna's magenta color, then Amazon's pink next to it. "They're different enough. You're good, Amazon. Crixus next, please."

"This baby blue, A0CAF0."

"Nice. Continue, Ventus."

"I'll take gray, 808080, please."

"Approved," Violet said. "Myranda?"

"Blue, please. A nice bright blue: 1E90FF."

Violet compared Crixus and Myranda's colors. "Seems good. Aelyx?"

"I'd like a darker blue, specifically 191970, please."

"This midnight blue?"

"Yes."

"Approved. Sol, I assume you want that shamrock green?"

"Yes, please!" Sol exclaimed. "The hex is 009E60."

"Fine. Now, we move to the seventeen-year-olds. Rochas."

"Of course, I'll be choosing a green, because it's the color of the earth that all of you imbeciles are destroying. Maybe this bright green, 09E600."

Violet nodded. "Kitt?"

"I'd also like a green," Kitt said, "but a darker green. Hex code 375623, please."

"Sounds good. Moving on to Sage."

Sage thought for a second, then said, "Let's go with a goldish yellow, FDC010, please."

"Very nice. Silas?"

"This particular red, CA303C."

"That's a nice red."

"Thank you."

Violet said, "Now to our sixteen-year-olds. Jess."

Jess looked down at her monitor and moved a few things around. "I'll go for a pale yellow, FCFD95."

"Very good. Aviel?"

"So, I like silver," Aviel said. "If it can't be the shiny silver, then the hex is C0C0C0, please."

"We'll see what we can do, Aviel," Violet assured the teen. "We're now halfway done. Let's keep moving. Sharen?"

"An emerald-ish green. The hex is 008000."

Violet smiled. "Good. Henley?"

"Since the dark blue is taken, I'll take a mint green, hex A8DDA5, please. Like Twelve's district color."

Violet nodded. "Liana?"

"I'll go with a sky blue, B1FFFF, please."

Violet and her team made sure that it wasn't too close to Crixus's baby blue before approving Liana's choice. "Lyric, you're up next."

Lyric looked at her screen. "I wanted the emerald green Sharen had, but the hex code 50C878 is good too."

Again, Violet had to check Lyric's to make sure it wasn't too close to Sol's. "I think that'll be OK. We move on to Mallory."

"I like this light purple, C9C9FF. It's my favorite."

"Very good. Something a bit different. We have a lot of greens though. Next, our fourteen-year-olds. Nell?"

"Turquoise, 40E0D0, please."

"Sinsya?"

"I like maroon, hex code 800000. It's a little bit different."

"Sounds good. Morrell."

"I'm surprised nobody has picked this one yet, but white, FFFFFF, please."

"That is impressive that nobody has picked it. All right, we're working through these! Our thirteen-year-olds next. Serenity?"

"Black. Six zeroes."

"Nice, sleek color. Another I expected to maybe go earlier. Let's keep moving. Ramona next."

"I really like dark purples. Like this one, hex 3C1F4D."

"Nice. Alexei?"

"I was also gonna choose white, but that's not really an option now. So how about orange, FFA500? Nobody else has anything resembling orange yet."

"Smart kid. Winsley?"

"So my prosthetics are already this shade of pink gold, pretty close to FEADC3, so I think that would be my best bet."

"Very good. Lastly, our twelve-year-olds. Alder?"

"THE BRIGHTEST POSSIBLE YELLOW EVER. THE HEX IS FFFF00. PLEASE THAT ONE."

Violet rubbed her finger in her ear. "That was quite loud, but very good. And finally, our youngest competitor, Chloe."

"I'm also surprised nobody has chosen this one yet. Red, hex FF0000, please!"

"Excellent. Very nicely done, everyone. I believe we are done for tonight. Thank you all for an effective meeting, and please let me know if you have any questions. Remember to wear your color tomorrow for training. Good night!"

As Sharen scooched passed Henley to get to the door, she realized that she had backed herself into a corner with her color choice. If she'd chosen black or white, she could have worn all kinds of other colors with it. But now she had to wear that one shade of green for quite a long time. It was almost like following a rule.

Thing was, Sharen didn't much like following rules.

* * *

 _Sage Davidson, 17  
District Eight Male_

* * *

Garnet Emerald was an intelligent man.

During the time set aside to choose colors, Sage had gotten a message on his monitor. "Please stay afterwards for a few minutes," it had said. "Do so sneakily, so that other people can't tell. Once we finish with the first part of the meeting, tell the other girl that you have a quick question to ask me, and stay back for a bit longer. You'll tell your mentors that you had a question for me. -Garnet." It was a great way to convey a message without any of the other competitors or the mentors knowing.

Once Violet had concluded the meeting, Sage got up, but moved very slowly out of the room, until it was just him and the girl from Thirteen, who was still in a nutcracker costume, left. A few awkward moments later, Garnet came in and took a seat in between them.

"Hi, guys. We'll just chat for a few minutes and then you're good to go. So, Sage, this is Henley. Henley, this is Sage. You two are going to be mission partners here. I just wanted to go over your mission in general and some of the specifics of it.

"So, your goal is very simple: make sure the Events go smoothly. That means making sure people aren't fighting or killing each other. Clear?" The competitors nodded. "Good. Now, some people to look out for.

"Many of the tributes from the Career districts are trained. The ones we're specifically concerned about are Silas from the Capitol and both from Two. Both from Four are also trained, but we're not convinced that they're as into training as Silas or Myranda, or even Chloe, are. I'm unsure how the Careers are going to handle things, but we need to keep an eye on it."

"Could there be a problem with the way that the other competitors interact with the ones from Career districts?" Henley asked.

"Astute question. Again, we don't know. I'd expect there to be some separation at least, more likely with the older ones. But there's no way to tell for sure.

"One other competitor to keep an eye on is Rochas from Five. I'm more concerned about him than anyone else. He's in the Save Earth Activists."

"Oh, those guys are fun," Henley said sarcastically.

"Yep. The Save Earth Crew are 'non-violent protesters.' More importantly, they're very loud and very annoying, and really don't like the Capitol because of the energy we use. If there's anyone who's going to try to make the Events fail, it could easily be Rochas. Even if he doesn't want to make the Events fail, he'll be trying to use them as a platform for Save Earth, which is OK to a point, but the point of the Events is not an environmental show. It's a new form of unity. Either way, you need to keep an eye on him."

Sage nodded. "Is there anyone else?"

"We don't have anyone in particular. But things might come up. I've set this up with Violet so that you two will report directly to me. Take these tablets. If you need, you can write to me directly from here. Henley, you are the face of the mission, and Sage is your backup. Sound good?"

"Sounds good," Henley affirmed. Sage nodded along.

"All right, you two are good. You can go back to your floors now."

"Actually, I have another question just for you, Garnet. Henley, go ahead of me."

Henley looked suspiciously at Sage. But when she saw Garnet's expression, which approximately translated to "don't push it," she left the other two alone.

"This mission thing is a cover-up, isn't it?" Sage asked.

"Yep. If people find out that you have involvement with the Capitol, we can't let your true secret get out. Tell them you're in SpOps."

Sage nodded. "You're quite a smart man. Does Violet know that I'm not really in SpOps?"

"No. She doesn't even know that you're staying back right now. If that becomes an issue, our cover story is that your mission was set up with me privately. That's what we're telling her."

"And that's part of the reason why Henley is the face of the mission."

"Correct."

"Is there anything I need to be aware of in particular?" Sage asked.

"Yes. So Myranda, the Two female, is the trainee of Dania Lidano."

"Oh."

"It's actually good that Myranda ended up here, because I think that she would make Top Eight in the Games, in which case they'd interview Dania."

"Which is bad, because they didn't altercate her all that much."

"They couldn't do much. They lightened Dania Lidano's skin a little, and she does wear colored contacts, but they couldn't exactly use the platform inserts in the shoes because she was already pretty tall. Even so, I still think that Dania Klepper could recognize her on camera. They might even interview Dania Lidano for the Events! That could be really bad.

"And that's not all. To complicate matters…"

"Dania's daughter is in the Events."

"Bingo."

"Why is that a problem from our perspective?"

"Well, they might not be straight. You never know. If they start dating, then one set of parents will travel to the other district, and then Dania Kesten is there in Two with Dania Lidano and…"

Sage nodded. "I see why that could be a problem. But we don't need to worry too much about this, I think. I'll keep an eye out to see if the two start dating, though."

"Excellent. Do you have any other questions for me?"

"Not at this time. But I have the table. So we'll see."

"Good. Keep me posted. If anyone is on your case, let me know."

Sage nodded, then made his way back to his floor. He had a lot to mull over.

* * *

 **So, here's our color selection! Wow, three chapters in three days! What do you think about the idea of using colors? Will Henley and Sage succeed in their mission(s)? Why could it be an issue if Dania Klepper recognizes Dania Lidano?**

 **For the record, the colors in the cover photo represent the colors the competitors will be wearing for the Events. The base color of the rectangle is the color the competitor selected, and the writing is int their district color (the new colors). They are a bit duller than I originally intended, so if you want to see the brighter colors, I have it uploaded on imgur. But, the cover photo will work well enough.**

 **Next up, we move into the long training sequence. I'm very excited to create some fun and cute plot arcs! Yes, cute. I have a big cute one planned.**

 **A reminder that there was a check-in at the end of last chapter. It might have gotten a bit buried because there was so much information, but make sure to go back and look for it.**

 **See y'all next chapter!**

 **Goldie031**


	25. Training, Day 1

_Mallory Farro, 15  
District Eleven Female_

* * *

Mallory woke up to snow falling outside her window. She'd never seen snow in real life before.

"Ivie, Ivie! It's snowing!" Mallory exclaimed, running out in her pajamas. "Do you see it?"

"Ooh, it is snowing! I haven't seen snow since my Victory Tour. It's gorgeous!"

"I'm so happy. Can I play in it?"

"Maybe a little later. Right now, you need to get ready for training."

Mallory nodded. She returned to her room and put on a lavender shirt and black leggings for training, then laced up a pair of athletic shoes. Then, she ate breakfast – as much as she wanted – while watching the snow fall out the window of the Training Center.

Today was going to be a good day.

Mallory knew that her personality was nothing short of a miracle, given her upbringing. Someone who was abused to the degree that she was should not be optimistic, much less always willing to lend a hand to those around her. But in her mind, if she allowed herself to be selfish, she might turn into her parents. And that was the scariest thought of all to Mallory.

Today wasn't the time for dwelling on the perils of home, though. Today was the day for building her future, away from her mom and dad. And the way to do that was through training.

Once Mallory and Crixus were both ready, the two hopped into the elevator to go down to the basement. Mallory wasn't sure what to think about her district partner. During the train rides, when Ivie, Skylar, and Beckia had asked their competitors about their home lives. Mal had been fairly open about her parents, obviously not going into too many details but acknowledging publicly their abuse. That had been freeing in it of itself. But Crixus hadn't really said anything about his family at all. Mallory thought that was a mistake on Crixus's part; if he wasn't completely open with his mentors, how could they help him best?

The elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened revealing a remodeled training floor. Despite the fact that Mallory had never seen the old one, she knew that this one was new; after all, there were not all that many weapons stations. There were still a few: archery, rifles, jousting sticks, and axes, to be precise, which Mallory felt was an odd combination of weapons. That was probably important to remember for later in the Events. Mallory also noticed an increase in mental and puzzle-solving stations, as well as one station representing each district's main industry. That certainly seemed like something else to consider when figuring out what the competitions would be.

Mal and Crixus were some of the first competitors to arrive. One of the trainers pinned a baby blue number 9 on each of their backs, then allowed the two of them to walk around until more people came along. Once everyone else came down, the head trainer addressed the assembled children. "Hello, everyone! My name is Portia, and I'm the head trainer here. A few rules before we begin. Normally, in the Games, we'd have to remind you all not to hurt or kill each other, but I'm hoping that won't be a problem this time around. Also, remember to wait your turn at stations. Make sure to stop when the bell rings for lunch and for the end of the day – we may allow you to access stations during the Events themselves within the Arena to train for future competitions. Are there any other questions? Good. Enjoy your time!"

Mallory immediately ruled out the physical stations, because those would be impossible with the condition of her leg. She decided to start with what was by far the most exciting station in the entire room: Ten's animal station.

"Hello," said the trainer. "Welcome to our mini Ten! We have some cute petting zoos here, which you can check out later, but I take it you're interested in some more practical skills."

Mallory nodded. "What do you have to teach me?"

"I can teach you how to lasso, or how to work with a trained dog."

"Why don't we start with the lasso."

"Sounds good!"

The trainer began by teaching Mallory how to make a lasso out of rope. "The most important thing is making sure that your knot is tight enough that it'll stay, but loose enough that you can still move the lasso. So, we're going to tie what's called a honda knot." Once Mallory had practiced tying knots a few times, she moved on to twirling and throwing the lasso. The rope was tough to get used to, because of the specific style of air resistance, but eventually Mal was able to hook some stuff with the lasso. "From here, it's just a matter of practice," admitted the trainer. "Give it a few shots, and let me know if you have questions."

A few moments later, a girl in a pale yellow shirt came over to the station. After the trainer taught her how to lasso, she came over to the practice station next to Mallory. "Hi, I'm Jess!"

"I'm Mallory. Nice to meet you!"

"Where are you from?"

"Eleven. You?"

"One."

Mallory narrowed her eyebrows. "Interesting that you're not hanging out with the other kids from Career districts."

"Well, I'm originally from Eight, so I don't feel like hanging out with them. You seemed like a much sweeter person; after all, you went straight for the animals. That's a good sign."

"Thank you!"

Mallory and Jess spent at least an hour lassoing together and getting to know each other, then moved over to learn how to work with dogs. For the first time ever, Mal felt that she might have a friend.

* * *

 _Nell Edwards, 14  
District Six Female_

* * *

Nell knew that she wasn't going to do particularly well at the physical aspects of training. She was young and skinny and going up against people the likes of Ventus, Silas, and Sol, all of whom were crazy muscular. Nell figured that Ventus could crush her head in! But, she figured it was important to at least practice some of the stuff that she didn't think she'd be good at. So, Nell decided to spend a little bit of the first day of training on the physical stuff, then move over to literally anything else. And of the physical stuff, Nell would probably be best at the agility challenge. That sounded like a good place to start, especially most of the tributes… competitors seemed to be starting with the puzzles.

Nell made her way to the agility station, getting there around the same time as two other competitors. She figured that, in these Events, being outgoing was the best way to approach the other competitors. So, she walked right up to them and introduced herself. "Nell Edwards, District Six."

"Lyric Cloud, Capitol."

"Aviel Nitsa, District Nine. Nice to meet you!"

"You as well."

"All right, trainees! Are you ready to take on the agility course?" The two nodded. "Excellent. This course is designed to be run one at a time, taking turns. It takes three minutes to complete on average. We're going to put you in some pads, then get you onto the course. Your goal is to stay upright and get to the finish. Questions? Great. Who's going first?"

Nell looked at Aviel. "Ladies first," Aviel smiled.

"Nell, you can go before me."

"Sounds good!" Nell exclaimed.

Nell followed the trainer to get suited up, then got set at the starting line. "You start on the green light. Good luck!"

Nell was ready. She steadied herself, putting her weight on her back leg to allow herself to launch onto the course. When the light turned green, she jumped. And fell.

It took Nell nine minutes to complete the course.

Once she was done, the trainer took her out of the pads and gave her an ice pack. He then began to suit up Lyric, while Aviel waited patiently for his turn.

Nell needed a confidence boost, so she decided to move over to a more mental station, maybe the memory one. Nell was really good at memorizing things, partly thanks to her work as a journalist; she already knew the names of every competitor, as well as their district colors and assigned colors. That would be a great way to reaffirm that she was, in fact, good at something. Before she could get any closer to it, though, she was pulled just to the side of the agility station by Aelyx, to where he thought was out of Aviel's range.

"Aelyx Stark, Thirteen," Aelyx said, offering his hand to Nell to shake.

"Nell Edwards, Six."

"I know. I have a question for you." Nell's eyebrows went up. "What can you tell me about your district partner?"

"About Ventus?"

"Yes. About Ventus."

Nell definitely had information about Ventus. She'd written a whole article about the previous year's incident. But there was one big rule of journalism that she'd picked up from her father: never just give someone else information; instead, get something in return.

"Why do you need it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You wouldn't be asking me for information if you didn't have a reason for needing it. And I need to know that reason before I give you that information."

Nell could see the wheels turning in Aelyx's head. If he gave her the information now, after such little coercion, she might be able to get even more out of him later. That would be good if she decided to write an in-person article about the Events after the fact. Informants were always the best to find.

Aelyx looked to see if Aviel was listening, then sighed. "All right. Here's what I got. I think Henley is a spy who was rigged into the Events."

"Really?" Nell urged Aelyx on.

"Yep. And because my dad is essentially her commander, I know what her mission probably is. It's most likely trailing one particular competitor. For her to be rigged in to follow one competitor, that one would have had to have been drawn before her. The only district to be drawn before Thirteen was Six. And considering your build versus his build, I figured he was the target."

Nell nodded. "You know, I might have something to help you. See, last year, Ventus was involved in an incident at his school." Nell proceeded to essentially tell Aelyx exactly what was in the article she'd already written, and that had actually been published. Publicly. Meaning, she wasn't giving him any information that wasn't already out for the public to read.

She'd made out like a bandit. Aelyx hadn't gotten any information that he couldn't have found out by himself. And Nell had found her number one informant on a potentially huge story in the Events: the Capitol rigging in a spy. Nell knew that she was going to need a little more information on Henley before publicly accusing or outing her. All she currently had was a speculation, and there was nothing worse that one could do to a journalist's creed than publish information that wasn't backed up by fact. So she was just stuck waiting for any more information.

At least she had a lead, though, and on a really juicy story to boot. And that was better than nothing.

* * *

 _Morrel Elmwyner, 14  
District Seven Male_

* * *

Morrel wasn't a particularly social kid. He had no personal qualms with focusing on himself and improving his abilities on his own. So, he decided to focus for most of the morning on the memory stations. Each kiosk in the memory area was focused on a different subject; some were for trivia focused, some were based on historical facts, some were simply for training one to memorize things faster, and some were seemingly random. He spent his entire morning at the memory stations: Morrel figured that each was included for a reason, and wanted to cover each and every one before training finished.

Morrel always had a natural intelligence. But there was a difference between intelligence and having a good memory. Intelligence was natural – you either have it or you don't. But memory could be trained. Even as Morrel continued to improve his own memory, he knew that he had to keep practicing lest he lose it. So Morrel continued to rotate through the memory stations, testing his ability to not only remember facts but to separate them from each other and employ them at the proper time.

Morrel did not lose sight of the fact that these memory stations (and how they would factor into the Events) would help him once he got back home. He still had time to apply to both Pre-University programs, and maybe this growth of knowledge would give him a leg up on other applicants. For Morrel, he would forever be unfulfilled until he reached that goal. Who needed a social life when he could have unbridled academic success? When he could pursue learning for learning's sake at a much higher level, one that he needed to be at because his home class was so unfulfilling? Morrel had a goal in sight, and he would use everything he could as a tool or stepping stone to reach it.

The bell rang, indicating that it was lunch time. Reluctantly, Morrel stopped what he was doing at the memory station and made his way to the cafeteria for lunch. On the way, however, he grabbed a book from the Six-specific station to read and learn from during lunch. Morrel was not the kind of person to put a ton of effort into making friends, so he might as well resign himself to the fact that he wasn't realistically going to find them and focusing on himself instead. He put his book down at a table and got on line for food.

As he and the other competitors waited on line, Morrel heard pleasant chatting in front of him and behind him. It felt a little odd not making alliances or anything of the sort. In a Games situation, Morrel probably would have gone on his own anyway. Allies were too dangerous and not trustworthy enough. And Morrel knew how to work with himself; after all, a little smarts could go a long way. If he wouldn't go for allies in a situation where they could be really necessary, how much the more so would he not go out of his way to find allies in a situation where he had been told to his face that there would be no team-based challenges. Morrel stayed quiet, getting food for himself and making his way back to his table, immediately diving back into his book to gather more information that he might need in the Events.

Suddenly, Morrel felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up to see a boy in an orange shirt sitting next to him. "Hi, I'm Alexei!"

"I'm Morrel. Nice to meet you." Morrel turned back to his book.

"I noticed you spent a ton of time studying. That's quite impressive to put that most effort into studying."

"Yeah."

"Are you studying for something?"

"Yeah. To get into either the Three or the Six Pre-University program."

"You know, my district partner Sinsya is in the Three Pre-U program. She could probably help you. And you're how old?"

"Fourteen."

"That's still young to get in. I think you can do it next year."

"Uh-huh." Morrel turned back to his book again.

Alexei breathed deeply. "If you want to take a break from studying, my friends and I would love to have you sit with us. Friends are good things to have."

"OK." Morrel couldn't see how disgruntled Alexei looked as he walked away.

The boy from Seven kept reading. But this time, he was much less motivated. It was taking him a really long time to finish even two pages. He turned around and saw Alexei sitting at a table with three other kids, all of whom were laughing and smiling and having a great time. For the first time, Morrel felt left out.

Morrel shook his head. Friends were unnecessary. He kept on reading his book. But something in him kept tugging him back to that group.

Maybe he could read alongside them.

Morrel tucked his book under his arm and brought his food over to Alexei's table. Shyly, for he'd never reached out to other kids before, he took a seat next to Alexei.

"Glad you joined us!" Alexei smiled. "This is Sinsya, Ramona, and Alder. Everyone, this is Morrel."

"Nice to meet you!" Sinsya said. "Where are you from?"

"Seven."

"Aha, a Seven bookworm," Ramona joked.

"I'm surprised that stereotype hasn't worn away now that Six is responsible for education."

Morrel found it surprisingly easy to talk to the other kids. He didn't end up reading another page of his book for the entire rest of lunch.

* * *

 _Kitt Mosley, 17  
District Ten Male_

* * *

Kitt had two options for how to socialize. The first was to try to make friends with some of the other guys, and maybe some of the girls if he got lucky. And the second was to flirt a bit and try to find romance. Possibly against his better judgment, Kitt chose the second option. Maybe romance wasn't an ideal way to set up a social group in the Events. But if Kitt didn't win, a romance was a much more remarkable thing to carry back home than a friendship; imagine being able to build a future with someone he met here!

First, he had to choose a target girlfriend. Immediately, Kitt ruled out any girls under 15: Chloe, Serenity, Ramona, Sinsya, and Nell. They were just too little. Even Mallory and Lyric, who were fifteen, were a little young. Maybe Sawyer was a target? Nope. She has a ring on her finger. Kitt knew that was a bad idea, after a remarkably bad incident a few years prior.

Scanning the other girls, the answer became clear: Sharen. Something about Sharen was interesting to Kitt. He'd watched for a while as she determinedly worked at improving her skills at various stations, all of which she'd done without any help. In fact, she'd vehemently refused it. There was something exciting about someone who was so independent and confident in herself.

Kitt thought for a few moments about how best to flirt with her. Eventually, he noticed her move over to the jousting station. What better way to flirt with a girl than to challenge her to a joust? That would definitely work.

Kitt approached the jousting station. "Hey, Sharen! Care to take on a challenger?"

"I prefer to train alone."

"But how do you practice jousting alone?"

Sharen narrowed her eyes. "I'll take you up on the offer."

The jousting station was essentially a giant blowup square with two podiums in the middle. The trainers suited Kitt and Sharen up in a ton of padding, then got them up onto their podiums. Each was handed a big stick with padding on either side. "The rules are very simple," explained the trainer. "If you fall off, you're done. We'll play best of three. Ready?" The two nodded. "Go."

The first match was a wash. Kitt was "having trouble balancing" and "couldn't really manage the stick," and so Sharen managed to win pretty easily. Kitt appeared pretty winded after the first match, but he got up and steadied himself for the second round. When he gave the trainer the nod, the match began.

"You know, you're quite good at this," Kitt complemented Sharen as he matched her blows.

"Yeah, yeah. You're letting me win."

"No, I'm not," Kitt played.

"Please. You stepped off of your platform the last time. Unless you have something you want from me, either pull your weight in this fight or get out of my way."

"Ooh, we have a fighter!" Kit swung at her legs, but Sharen jumped up to avoid it. "You're so agile, too. Have you been practicing?"

"Why does it matter?"

Kitt shrugged. Sharen was good. "I'd like to see you working up a bit of a sweat."

"That is gross. What are you trying to do?"

"What do you think?"

Sharen groaned. "Let's just fight."

The next few minutes passed by quickly, for Kitt had lit a fire under Sharen. She became ferocious, doing everything she could to knock Kitt out. But this time, Kitt was fighting back. After a few moments, he was able to knock Sharen off of her podium. "Ha! I got one! "

Sharen took a deep breath, and stood back up on her podium. She grabbed her stick tightly, with a fire in her eyes that Kitt hadn't seen before. That probably wasn't good for Kitt. But he wasn't giving up now. He had to finish what he started, lest Sharen think him a coward. He steadied himself on his podium and got ready for what he assumed would be an onslaught.

He was right. Sharon was belligerent, whacking the ever-living daylights out of Kitt. But Kitt maintained his balance and managed to get a few hits in. "Hey, Sharen! No need to be so combative."

Sharen whacked Kitt over the head with her jousting stick. And the world went black.

* * *

 _Lyric Cloud, 15  
Capitol Female_

* * *

Lyric knew that she needed a social group. She truly wanted nothing more than to fit in, especially in such a completely unfamiliar setting. That was the strangest thing about these Events. Even though Lyric was in her home district, she felt that she was out of place. And that was because she didn't have any friends yet.

Now, it was certainly possible that that could just be something that took a while. Friends were not instantaneous things, after all; she'd worked quite hard to build up her social group back home. But she also knew that allies often formed quite quickly in the Games. Admittedly, the Games were a much higher-pressure situation than the Events, which could be a part of it. But something told Lyric that there was something bigger going on.

Lyric took some time to look around at the other Careers. Silas and Myranda also looked kind of out of place, Winsley and Chloe were staying together, and Jess was hanging with some other girls, but she wasn't really a Career anyway, having grown up for the most part in Eight. So one thing linked the real Careers: none of them were gelling along well with anyone else. Lyric figured that there was a reason for this: the other competitors were still scared of those from the Career districts.

There had to be something that the Careers could do as a unit to fix the problem. Lyric could tell, however, that if the problem was that they were Careers, clumping up to figure out a solution in the middle of training wouldn't help things at all. Instead, she quietly went around to each of the other people from the Career districts, as well as Sol and Amazon who were semi-Careers, and asked them to meet her on the Capitol floor after training. (The nice thing about the Events was that the competitors were allowed to visit each other's floors. It made organizing things much easier.)

After training ended, the Career district competitors gathered together on the top floor of the Training Center, where the Capitol tributes and competitors stayed. "All right, Lyric. What's the function of this meeting?" Myranda asked.

"I've been noticing some stuff during training that I wanted to see if anyone else was seeing. Have any of you been having trouble making friends with some of the Outer District competitors?"

Myranda nodded. "I've been feeling like that a little bit. I think that, for me, I've been trained to align with other Careers. But there aren't really any Careers here – just me and Silas. So it's a bit weird for me."

"I've been feeling a little bit like that too," Silas agreed, "but less than Myranda because I've been a little less invested in training over the past few weeks and months."

Jess shrugged. "I see where y'all are coming from, but I'm not super feeling it but I'm also not a real Career."

"It's good that you openly admit that," smiled Sol. "I'm feeling similarly to Silas, but a little less passionate about my training."

"I feel like I'm doing OK," Amazon smiled. "Lucy is helping me out." She bounced her baby on her lap, causing the little one to smile. Amazon grabbed a toy from a bag for Lucy to play with, but the baby instantly threw it onto the ground. "She's also learning how to play fetch."

"Chloe, Wins, what about you?" Lyric asked.

"We have each other, but that's about it. We're fine though," smiled Winsley. Chloe smiled and nodded.

"So if we're all feeling kind of the same way, then I think we need to come up with a unified plan," Silas offered. "Regardless of whether we want to be a Career pack or if we don't, I think it'll be best for us if we all use the same approach. So, raise your hand if you are actively interested in having a Career pack this year."

Nobody raised their hands.

"I will say, though, that I'm not convinced that we can avoid having a pack," Myranda pointed out. "If everyone else's perception is that we're scary or that we're a pack, I think we might end up grouped up. Plus, we shouldn't just not hang out if we're scared of others' perceptions."

"But wouldn't it be great if we could shift other people's perspectives?" Jess proposed.

"It won't work," Sol rebutted. "I love that line of thinking, but it's much more complex than just one Events. These Events are once-a-year things and they'll come off of the Games. Any good work we do will be undone by the Careers in the Games later this year."

The group nodded sadly. None of them wanted to believe that Sol was right, but that was the reality of the situation.

"Why can't we try?" asked Winsley. "Let's try our best to reach out to the outer district kids and make friends with them. That would be ideal."

"So we're proposing not having a pack," Silas confirmed.

"At least for now," clarified Sol. "I think we should work to find friends across the other districts. In a worst-case scenario, once we get into the Events and we're dealing with the competitions, we can join up again. But I think that we can really give our districts a better reputation if we work hard during the Events."

"Does this answer your question or whatever, Lyric?" Amazon asked, turning things back to Lyric.

Lyric gave a very diplomatic answer. "I mean, I guess. It's comforting that other people were dealing with the same thing I was. I'm very glad that we have a plan at this point, and I think it'll be good for us to try to better our districts' names." But, all of that meant that Lyric would actually need to put effort into making friends again. And she wasn't sure if that was ideal.

* * *

 **Wow that was longer than I expected! But here you are, the first day of training! What do you think? We're starting to see a little bit of the friend groups that are forming in this section, as well as some ideas of the competitions we're going to see. I'm super excited to show you how this all plays out!**

 **We've got another training chapter coming next, then most likely the private sessions and interviews. If you haven't filled out the second or third check-in, please do that. See y'all soon!**

 **-goldie031**


	26. Training, Day 2

_Winsley Vwystrom, 13  
District One Male_

* * *

Winsley woke up with a feeling in his stomach that he'd never quite experienced before. It wasn't anticipation, necessarily, though there was certainly a little bit of that. He didn't think it was nerves, either, though that was also possible. The boy decided that the best thing to do would be to talk it out with someone, and so decided to ask one of his mentors for help.

"Hey, Steven?" asked Winsley, moving into the common room.

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," said Steven, putting down the book he was reading. "What do you need?"

"What does love feel like?"

Steven was taken aback by the boy's question. "Why do you ask, Wins?"

"I'm just curious."

Jess, who was also sitting in the common room, smiled.

It took Steven a moment to figure out how to respond. "Love feels different for everyone, Winsley. It's hard for me to say that this is what love is because it's different for everyone."

Jasper overheard the conversation. "It's also different towards different people. I love my daughter very much, but I haven't really found a woman that I want to marry yet because that's a different kind of love."

"So how'd you have your daughter?" Winsley asked.

"Long story."

"Winsley, do you think you're feeling love?" asked Jess.

Winsley thought for a second. "I don't know. I'm feeling different than I've ever felt but I really am not sure if it's love."

"It's OK to not know," smiled Steven. "Love is complicated. It's much better to have these feelings in the Games. You can take time to explore them if you need. Whatever feels right to you."

"OK," said Winsley.

"I think you were looking for a more definite answer," Jess smiled. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well, feelings aren't definite or explainable. They're different for everyone, like Steven said."

"But it's hard to be trying to explain and understand my emotions when I'm also competing for One's honor."

"So, let your emotions be whatever they are. When you know, you'll know." Jess ruffled her little partner's hair. "Let's go down to the Training Center."

"Have fun!" Steven offered. The kids waved goodbye as the elevator doors closed, taking them down a couple of floors to the training floor.

When the doors opened, they noticed that the only other kids there were the ones from Two. Immediately, Winsley's eyes lit up. Chloe was there! Immediately, he made a beeline for his friend. "Hi, Chloe."

"Hi! How was your night?"

"It was good. You?"

"Good. Did you see my new extensions?"

Chloe had been so excited when she got her extensions. The day before, she'd talked for hours about how great the extensions made her feel and how feminine and everything. Her brown eyes had sparkled so brightly, the same way Wins hoped his eyes sparkled when he talked about dance or floorball. Chloe was such a bright star, someone amazingly positive for all that she'd been through. Winsley couldn't understand it. If the two even stayed friends, Wins would be the luckiest kid in the world.

"I did see them. They're really nice."

"Myranda taught me how to braid my hair today. She just taught me a simple braid, but she said there's so many more hairstyles to learn. You should learn to braid your hair, too. I mean, yours is kinda short to brush right now, but you could grow it."

"But I don't think that, when I'm a boy, I'd appreciate it if it was long."

"That makes total sense."

The most comforting thing for Winsley about Chloe was that she wasn't cisgender. Sure, One was more accepting than Two. But it was hard for Wins to explain his specific vein of genderfluidity. Kids could understand their nonbinary friends better than they understood Winsley. And it was hard sometimes. But seeing Chloe now, so confident in her identity for the first time ever, gave Winsley confidence in his own. If she was able to come out despite knowing the way that her binary district would receive it, Wins could do anything.

Suddenly, Winsley had an epiphany of why he was so hesitant to love Chloe. Because he did love her. Undoubtedly. But as a genderfluid person, Chloe might not love him all the time. And that was a heartbreak that Winsley wasn't ready for.

"Myranda told me that she could teach me to do makeup too. But she decided not to teach me until I got my own because apparently, it's not safe to share eyeshadow."

Before he could stop the compliment from tumbling out of his mouth, Winsley blurted out, "But why do you want to learn how to do makeup? You're really pretty without it."

Chloe blushed. "Thank you, Winsley."

Was blushing a good sign? Did Chloe like Winsley after all?

He sure hoped so.

* * *

 _Serenity Capiere, 13  
District Eight Female_

* * *

Serenity watched as friend groups popped up around her. Everyone else was being really cute and friendly and whatever. Serenity knew that she could probably go hang out with the group of younger kids. But they were all outer district kids, and definitely below her. She needed people at her level. And those people were the Careers.

But not _just_ the Careers. Because Wins and Chloe were Careers. (Technically.) She wanted to go bigger.

Serenity wanted to be in the same group as Myranda and Silas.

The girl from Eight knew that Myranda was high up in her year by the way the girl carried herself. Myranda stood with an air of remarkable confidence. Even in a situation where her training wouldn't necessarily come in handy, Myranda acted as though she was the cream of the figurative crop. It was almost like Myranda knew that she was the one to beat.

And then there was Silas. Serenity and Silas had trained in the same Academy in One for a time, and Serenity knew how skilled they were. Silas would be just as dangerous as Myranda in a Games situation. But then again, most of the "Careers" wouldn't be here if this was a Games situation. For Serenity, Silas had the appeal of his familiarity; she knew, to a certain degree, his strengths and weaknesses, and she was sure he'd remember her. But Silas was a boy. And if Serenity was going to try to align herself with someone with power, both physically and in terms of popularity, she might as well bring in the girl power card to boot.

Putting on the bravest face she could and carrying herself as tall as possible, Serenity approached the girl from Two, who was practicing at the rifle station. As Myranda was reloading her gun, Serenity said, "Hi, Myranda!"

Myranda glared at the pipsqueak standing to her side. "What would you like?"

"I want to be in with the Careers."

The older girl's eyes narrowed. "There's not really a Career Pack this year. You know that, right?"

Serenity didn't. But she wasn't going to tell Myranda that. "Yeah. But that doesn't matter. I want to be in with you."

"Why?"

"I lived in One for five years or so. Solely by my district status, I am entitled to a place in the Pack."

"That's not always how it works, Serenity. You also have to have trained."

"But I _have_ trained," whined Serenity. "I should be in the pack!"

Myranda took a deep breath. "All right." She handed Serenity an appropriately sized gun. "Show me what you can do with this. Let's start from there."

Serenity took a deep breath. She took the gun from Myranda and approached the training station. "Is it loaded?"

"Do you know how to check?"

"Yes," lied Serenity. She confidently held the gun, aimed it at the target, and fired.

It was a blank.

"I just wanted to see how it recoiled," Serenity explained. She opened the barrel and loaded the gun, hopefully correctly, then fired the gun again.

"Try again, and maybe aim for the target this time," suggested Myranda.

"I got it," Serenity said. She steadied herself and fired again, grazing the bottom of the target.

"Better."

"Just you wait."

Serenity fired fifty bullets. Three of them hit the target.

"Well?"

Myranda had mercy on Serenity. "Let's try something else."

After about an hour, it became clear that, despite the fact that Serenity had technically trained, she had not gained any skills at all. "Can I still join the Careers?" she begged.

"Serenity, there really isn't a Career pack. And if there was, your skills aren't good enough to be included in it as an outer district tribute."

Serenity nearly threw a tantrum. But, for the first time in her life, she realized beforehand that that might impede on her ability to get in with the Careers in the long term. So, she switched gears and moved over to Silas, who was working at one of the mental stations. "Hi, Silas!"'

Silas sighed. "What's up?"

"I would like to be a part of the Career pack."

"Serenity, there is no Career pack this year. I can't make one up for you to be a part of it and, quite frankly, I don't want to. The Pack is a problem."

"So you won't even let me try to be a part of it? Myranda let me try to be a part of it."

"Well, if you already asked Myranda, why are you asking me as well?"

"Because I really want to be part of the Pack and I don't understand why nobody is letting me! It is a right given to me by living in One for five or so years that I get to be a part of it and nobody can say no!"

Serenity launched into a full-on tantrum, so bad that her mentor had to be called to forcibly remove her from the training room.

* * *

 _Jessamine Rogers, 16  
District One Female_

* * *

Jess felt lucky that she was able to lead with her Eight heritage. After the previous night's discussion with the rest of the Careers, who seemed to be having trouble breaking out of their district stereotypes, Jess was thrilled that she could break that down by leading with the most District-loyal District that existed. Plus, it helped to have Mallory as an assistant. Mallory was just the sweetest girl, and just being with her gave Jess such a good reputation anyway. The girls had spent most of training together, going from station-to-station making sure to cover as much as possible for the Events.

The bell rang for lunch. Jess and Mallory ended up near the back of the line for food, so they chatted amicably until they were able to get food and find a table.

"Wanna sit over there with those other girls?" Jess proposed.

"Sure. I'll follow your lead."

Jess and Mallory snaked through the tables, then took seats with a bunch of other girls. "Hey! Can we sit with you guys?"

"Of course," one of them, a girl in magenta, said. "I'm Luna. This is Lyric, Sawyer, and Amazon's over there."

"Don't mind me," smiled Amazon in the pink. "I'm just breastfeeding."

"You have a baby?" Mal exclaimed. "That's so exciting!" Mallory sat down next to Amazon. "What's her name?"

"Her name is Lucy. She's three months old and my pride and joy."

"Can I hold her?"

"Of course!"

Jess smiled as Mallory, who was pretty shy early on, got into a nice conversation with Sawyer and Amazon about life with significant others and babies. Jess decided to leave Moms and Co. alone and switched gears to talk to Lyric and Luna.

"How are you two doing?"

"I'm doing well," smiled Lyric. "It's kind of cool to have a group of friends here."

"Yeah," agreed Luna. "I think it's interesting that, even though we don't need alliances, we still are naturally gravitating into social groups."

"Because we as humans naturally want to have friends and categorize ourselves?" suggested Lyric.

"It's certainly possible," Jess suggested.

"But I've always been of the opinion that it's better to stand out and be oneself than try to conform to a friend group," mused Luna. "I dunno."

Lyric looked pretty pensive at Luna's comment. But, before she could react, another person came up to their table. "Can I sit with you?"

The girls looked up at the boy in the green top. "Oh my god, what happened to you?" exclaimed Amazon. She sprung up and forcibly sat Kitt down at the table.

"Oh, training yesterday. I was jousting with someone and she whacked me over the head with the jousting stick."

"You poor baby," soothed Sawyer. "Luna, can you run and grab him an ice pack? His eye is completely black and blue."

Luna obliged, running up to the kitchen and talking to one of the assistants there. "Wouldn't a hot pack be better?" asked Jess.

Mallory shrugged. "I've never used a hot pack or an ice pack when I got hurt, so I don't really know."

The six girls all began to fuss over Kitt. After four minutes, he had three ice packs, two hot packs, a slab of meat, a bag of frozen vegetables, and a bowl of chicken soup. "For his soul," Jess had explained. The boy looked more shell-shocked than he had when he came over to the girls' table. It looked like he had been Momed. Hard.

"So, what exactly happened to your eye?" asked Lyric.

"I told y'all. I was jousting with someone, and she knocked me out."

"Oh no! Was it intentional?" asked Sawyer.

"Yes," Kitt said.

Mallory instantly tensed up. Sensing her friend's nerves, Jess put a reassuring hand on Mallory's shoulder and rubbed Mal's back. "You're OK," Jess whispered into Mallory's ear. "Nobody is going to hurt you." She felt like that was the right thing to say.

"Thanks," Mallory whispered back.

"Did you provoke her?" Luna's eyes narrowed.

"No," lied Kitt. "I just wanted to be friends with her."

A chorus of "Oh no!" and "Poor baby!" erupted from the girls. "Kitt, that's so sad!" Lyric exclaimed.

"Who was it? We can go talk to her," Sawyer suggested.

"I don't want to say that. With the Events coming up, we don't want to make enemies."

"That's right," nodded Sawyer.

"You're so sweet!" exclaimed Mallory.

"We can be your friends," Amazon suggested.

Jess couldn't quite understand the disappointed look on Kitt's face when Amazon used the word "friends." He dejectedly nodded, leading the girls to jump into get-to-know-you questions.

It was almost as though Kitt felt he was getting friend-zoned.

* * *

 _Aviel Nitsa, 16  
District Nine Male_

* * *

The first thing Aviel did after lunch was spend time at the memory station. Once he was stationed in front of the podium, Aviel pulled out a notebook and pencil and began to furiously write down as many questions as he could, along with their answers. This way he could continue to practice later on, once he got back upstairs.

About halfway through the questions, Aviel took a break and moved over to the agility station. This way, he could interact with some other competitors and get to know them. Sure, he'd already spent some time there, but it was the best way to get to know other people because only one person could run at once. On the way, though, he noticed that Rochas was standing stubbornly in the middle of the training floor. Aviel diverted from his plan and approached the boy from Five.

"Hey, Rochas. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing. Just annoyed that the Capitol has decided to prioritize entertainment over the environment."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know how much electricity this building must use? Electricity is a giant power zapper."

"Well, we need electricity to power our light bulbs to see."

"But we could still use candles. And those are renewable. You could collect the dripping wax and melt it down and reform it."

"Rochas, we use renewable energy now. Like the sun and the wind."

"But we don't have to use them! Any kind of electricity is a waste."

Aviel wasn't going to get anywhere with Rochas. He decided to move on to the agility station, where he spent the rest of the afternoon gathering as much information as he could, like that Sol's lucky color was shamrock green, and if he didn't have it on him at all times, he would flip out. He also talked to Winsley about his prosthetics and what he could and couldn't do with them. (Taking his prosthetics without giving Wins a replacement was too low for even Aviel to stoop.) He also learned not to challenge Sharen to anything, and that even attempting to challenge Crixus wouldn't work. But Aviel didn't gain any information that was actually useful for him in the long term to accomplish his goals. He decided to do one last sweep of the room before training finished and he gave up for the day. He still had time to figure out what he wanted to.

As he scanned the room, Aviel noticed Henley and Sage standing together and talking near the edge of the room. Carefully, he moved towards them, pretending to approach the station to their left but really picking up their conversation. And it was a doozy.

"So we're not concerned about there being a Career pack?"

"Not at all."

"Great. I'll focus on Rochas since I think Aelyx thinks I should be focusing on Ventus."

"And I'll handle Ventus. And you'll report to Violet tomorrow?"

"Yes, that's what Garnet asked me to do yesterday during lunch."

"Good. Hopefully, we won't have to talk like this again. Not that I dislike you."

"I totally get it, and I agree. Good luck."

"You as well."

Henley and Sage separated. Aviel followed behind them, dumbfounded in the best way. Nell and Aelyx were right – Henley was probably actually a spy! And Sage might be a spy too! But that wasn't the important part. The important part was that, if they were going to be seriously trailing or targeting people, they would be targeting Rochas and Ventus, and not him.

And that was a good sign.

Firstly, it meant that Aviel could get away with some stuff solely because people weren't focusing on him. He knew how to cheat sneakily; that had never been a problem. But there was so much more he could accomplish simply by not being the target. So that was one major plus.

But when he cheated, Aviel often didn't simply cheat. He knew how to throw the target at home: put the answer key in someone else's locker, put another woman's clothing in the room of a boy whose woman he was stealing, et cetera. Here, Aviel needed to do the same thing. And even though he didn't know exactly how to throw the target in the Events because he didn't know what they would entail, there had to be a way. If you tried hard enough, you could cheat at anything.

It didn't really matter who he targeted in the long run. But if he could target people about whom the spies were already suspicious, it would only help to keep people off of his back. So, it looked like Ventus and Rochas were going to be thrown under the bus in the name of improving Aviel's standing in Panem and the life of his family.

Oh, well.

* * *

 **We're starting to see some plots come together! What did y'all think of the chapter? Will Winsley get Chloe to fall for him? Will Aviel get off scot-free? Will Kitt find a girlfriend? What's up with Serenity?**

 **I'm super excited to be progressing at this rate. Next up we have the private sessions and score reveal, and then it's just the interviews, followed by the start of the Events! I'm psyched to get this story underway.**

 **If you have a tribute in the story and you could send me their ranking 1-10 on puzzles, that'd be great. This is not a formal checkin, but I really need this because I am an idit.**

 **Thank you all for your support thus far!**

 **goldie031.**


	27. Private Sessions

_Silas Rune, 17  
Capitol "Male"_

* * *

During lunch on the third day of training, the doors to the lunchroom were closed tightly, allowing the staff of the Training Center to reset the room for the private sessions. After eating a little bit for lunch, Silas warmed up for their session, jumping up and down and shaking their hands to get their nerves out. All around them, their fellow competitors were getting ready in their own way. However, Silas noticed that there was a lot more chatter than they assumed there would be in a Games situation. People were calming down by talking to each other. And that was great!

It didn't bother Silas _too_ much that they hadn't found a friend yet. Sure, everyone wanted to have a friend group, especially in such an unfamiliar setting. But, Silas recognized that the Events were only temporary. In just a little under a month, they'd all be returning to their homes and loved ones, for better or for worse. One of them would be much better off, but that was about all that would be different.

Except for their time in the spotlight, of course. That would make them very different.

Silas was shaken out of their thoughts by a pleasant voice. "Good afternoon, competitors. In just a moment, you will begin going in, one by one, for your private sessions. As has been the case for the past decade of Games, you will go in random order. Each of you will have ten minutes in front of the Gamemakers, thought you may ask to be dismissed early. Is that understood?" A light chorus of yeses followed. "Very good. The sessions will begin in a few minutes. Good luck!"

Silas returned to their warm-up routine, the same stretching regimen that they would always do at home, to get in the zone.

"Aviel Nitsa."

With little fanfare, the private sessions began. Silas attempted to keep track of those who came before them, but it wasn't working too well; too much time was passing between sessions. What felt like seven hours, though they knew it was less, passed, and Silas still wasn't called.

They at least knew that their out-of-binary kiddos, Winsley and Chloe, had both taken their turn. Silas considered themself lucky that there were two other competitors out of the binary just like them. Well, not _just_ like them, but close enough. It was thrilling to watch Chloe gain her confidence, to help Winsley figure out his gender fluidity, and to watch them grow closer together. As much as anybody else, Silas wanted to see Chloe and Winsley together as a couple, and they'd do what they could to make that happen.

"Serenity Capiere."

Silas looked up at the announcement of the name of potentially the most annoying competitor in the Events. They really tried not to dislike people as much as They could. But it took a special someone to not just reject, but actively dislike everything about the Events. This was such a great opportunity! Why wasn't she taking it?

Silas snapped out of their thoughts, returning to their preparation regimen. They needed a good score, regardless of whether it would actually help them in the Events or not, for they confidence. Every Career wanted a good score, and as much as Silas didn't really want to admit it, they were a Career. And they tried to block out the sound of Serenity throwing an absolute tantrum in the training room for some reason. Finally, the screaming stopped as (they presumed) Serenity finished.

"Silas Rune."

Silas perked up. It was their time to shine! Confidently, they strode into the training center, ready to show the Gamemakers their skills.

They began by working in the mental stations. Silas knew that the Gamemakers would expect them to focus on physical things, being a trained competitor, so they wanted to do something totally different to begin. Silas took some time at the memory stations, showcasing both their abilities in trivia and their skills at short term memory. Then, they went to the puzzle stations, completing a variety of complex puzzles. Finally, when they felt they'd shown the Gamemakers enough, they moved on to their specialty: physical skills.

"I would like to request three trainers, at varying levels, with whom I may joust."

"Approved." The trainers joined Silas at the jousting station.

Now was the part that Silas really excelled at: physical fighting. They began with the lowest level trainer, easily knocking him in his knees and eliminating him. Then came the second trainer. She put up a good fight as well, but struggled to defend both her legs and her torso at the same time. Finally, the third trainer came up. Silas had finally met their match. The two fought for a few minutes until Silas saw an opening, both figuratively and literally between the trainer's legs. He went down hard.

"Is that all, Silas?" Violet asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Very well. You are dismissed."

Silas left the training room, confident that they'd accomplished what they'd set out to do.

* * *

 _Henley Moriarty, 16  
District Thirteen Female_

* * *

There was something off to Henley about her mission.

See, as a spy, she'd been trained to look for any irregularity in a given situation. She was hyper-aware of tiny things that didn't seem to make sense. And while most people would dismiss those things, Henley knew to analyze them, and worst case scenario, she ended up going crazy over nothing, but there would be no harm done. And this situation undoubtedly had irregularities.

First of all, she hadn't been informed before going into the Events that she'd have a partner. She was pretty sure that SpOps agents were usually told if they were going to have a pair, and who that pair would be. But that wasn't the strangest part of her mission partner. The strangest part was that he came from Eight. Knowing what she knew of the personalities of the districts, it seemed odd that someone with loyalty to the Capitol would come from the district most against it.

Then again, it made sense for there to be some agents in Eight, just in case things went crazy, to have a deeper Capitol presence. So that could be an explanation.

"Henley Moriarty," said the pleasant voice. Henley attempted to look startled when she heard her name, but she wasn't sure how good of a job she did; after all, she'd been told by Garnet the day before that she'd be going fourteenth out of the 28 competitors. That was because the longest break for the Gamemakers came after the halfway point, allowing her to sneakily report to Violet during that time.

That was another strange thing about her mission. Even though she would be reporting to Violet that day, and for most of the days, all of her communication was coming through Garnet. But the more she thought about that factor, the less she found it strange. As a Gamemaker, Violet wasn't involved in the military that much, if at all; for her to know the identity of even one SpOps agent was a huge sign of trust. It was important to prevent the potential spread of any more valuable information, and since Henley was the face of the mission, it made sense for her to be the one Violet knew.

As it turned out, the strange things weren't all that strange after all. But they were still good to keep an eye on.

Henley stood up and confidently entered the room, ready for her private session. She chose to start with the stations that she figured would be more useful in the Events, namely strength and speed. Henley began by going over to the track. She showed off her sprinting skills at consecutive distances, 100m, 200m, and 400m, each at a blistering pace. Then, she moved over to the strength station, where she not only demonstrated how much she could deadlift but also her ability to throw. Next came the memory stations, followed by the puzzle station. Finally, she stood in front of the Gamemakers. As she'd been instructed, she said, "I'd like to do one final skill, but just for Head Gamemaker Emerald."

The other Gamemakers looked confused, but Violet said, "Approved. Everyone may take their break. We'll reconvene in twenty minutes." Cautiously, the other Gamemakers departed, leaving Henley looking up at Violet from the floor. "So, what can you say?"

"I have mostly been keeping an eye on Rochas. Not knowing what will happen during his private session, as he has not gone yet, but I can only assume that he won't be much better than he's been during the Events thus far. Granted, he has mostly just been very loud with not much action, so I'm not incredibly worried.

"I have good news regarding a Career pack – there will not be one! The Careers, in fact, have explicitly stated that there will not be one, and enforced that policy when another competitor requested to join. Now, they're not necessarily mingling with the other competitors, but I'm not sure how much of that is their fault and how much of that is the fault of the other competitors and their prior biases. So there's that.

"One other competitor that I have been keeping an eye on is Ventus Gorva, the male from Six. We… I heard through the grapevine that Ventus has had some violent actions in his past. Ventus has not given any sign of there being a problem, but that's just something good to know about."

"That is all excellent. Thank you, Henley."

"You're welcome. One other thing?"

"Yes?"

"I believe my district partner knows that I'm in the SpOps branch."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well," explained Henley, "his father is my commander. If he doesn't know me personally, he's aware of what a spy could be like and what their missions tend to be. So it really wouldn't surprise me if he knows."

"That's good to be aware of. Do you think he's told anybody else?"

"Unclear. Potentially Nell from Six."

Violet nodded concernedly. "Thank you for letting me know. Is there anything else?"

"No, ma'am."

"Very good. You have performed well thus far, Henley. You are dismissed."

"Thank you!"

With a chip on her shoulder, Henley made her way back to her district's floor.

* * *

 _Amazon Brown, 18  
District Four Female_

* * *

Amazon cradled a sleeping Lucy in her arms as she sat, waiting for her session to start. She sat next to Jess and Mallory, chatting amicably in a way she was never really able to do before the Games. While she was in Two, everyone was completely focused on training. And while she was in Four, she hadn't been able to make friends because of how young Lucy was. But now, she was in a position to make friends. Which was ironic, because she was about as uncomfortable in the Events as she'd ever been in her life.

If there was one thing that Amazon strongly disliked, it was being in the spotlight. All she wanted to do in her life was be a wife and mother and support others, not show herself off. Yet here she was, in the most public position she could possibly be in: the inaugural Events. All eyes in Panem were on her and her fellow competitors, and not just because they had to be; the people were equally interested in whether or not the Events were actually viable. That was a lot of pressure for someone who just wanted to be a mom.

"Amazon Brown," said the pleasant voice. Amazon looked down at Lucy, then up at the screen. Lucy was asleep! What was she to do?

"Do you want me to take her?" asked Mallory. "I like kids."

"Yes, if you can do it without waking her up."

"Amazon Brown," repeated the voice, a bit more urgently this time.

"I'm trying to not wake my baby," Amazon tried to tell the voice. Carefully, she shifted Lucy into Mallory's arms. But, just as she was about to complete the transition, the voice exclaimed, much louder this time, "Amazon Brown!"

"WAAAAAAAAAA!" cried Lucy, jerking all of the other competitors out of their thoughts. The baby's cries were loud, so much so that Amazon figured they had to be penetrating the wall of the training center.

Mallory began to bounce the baby in her arms. "You go. I've got Lucy under control."

"Thank you. Please be careful."

"She'll be asleep in a moment."

Amazon entered the gym. "I'm sorry I'm late," she said sheepishly. I was trying to keep Lucy asleep."

"Aha," Violet nodded understandingly. "Did she stay asleep?"

"No. The voice woke her up."

"I'm sorry."

"She'll go back to sleep. May I begin?"

"You may."

Amazon turned away from the Gamemakers and scanned the room. Though she tried her best to think of something to show the Gamemakers, all she could think of was that the room was an absolute mess. She needed to make the room presentable again! Amazon began to put away the weapons in their place, organizing the jousting sticks so they were all nice and neat, and the guns so that they were all pointing away from their users, and made sure that the axes were set up in a way that was safe, and organized the arrows so that all of the fletching matched in each of the quivers and so the bows were arranged by size.

"Amazon, you know you don't have to clean everything up, right?" Violet asked. "And you can actually show us some skills?"

"It's compulsive," Amazon explained. She moved on to wiping down the camouflage station and organizing the paints.

"Are you going to show us anything?"

"Not while the room is this messy."

"Well, if not, I might as well tell you what we're doing about Lucy during the Games."

"Yes, I would appreciate that!"

"So, during the Events where you're competing within your living space for the Events, you can keep Lucy in the crib next to you. If you need to pause the timer to handle Lucy, you have a five-minute pause; after that, you should call in a babysitter. That babysitter will also be yours during any competition you're doing outside of your house. Sound good?"

"Yes, but who is the babysitter?"

"Her name is Lilac. She's sixteen-ish and my daughter."

"Can I meet her before the Events start?"

"Sure. I'll have her meet you tomorrow during interview prep."

"Excellent."

Amazon continued to clean up the area. She'd basically finished with the camouflage, so decided to move on to deep-cleaning the cooking station. (Amazon had been thrilled when she discovered that the cooking station was there. She quite enjoyed cooking.)

"Are you really not going to show us anything?" Violet confirmed.

"Really."

"Then you can go pick up Lucy and return upstairs, Amazon. Thank you."

"Are you sure you'll be able to clean all this up?"

"I'm positive. You can go."

Gratefully, Amazon returned to the holding area and retrieved her still crying daughter. Then, the two went back up to the District Four floor to await Amazon's score.

* * *

 _Crixus Anjou, 18  
District Eleven Male_

* * *

Crixus was pretty confident that he knew what his score would be. And he wasn't expecting much, as he hadn't had that much to show.

He'd tried, at least. Crixus had done some running and some climbing and lifted some weights. But everyone did running and climbing and strength. And thanks to a notable lack of motivation, as usual, he hadn't picked up all that much more during training. So he admitted that he didn't have much to show, but did what he could. At least this time around, a low score wouldn't make him an easy target, nor would it make the sponsors not want to sponsor him. So there was a silver lining.

The doors to the District Eleven floor opened, and Mallory entered the floor. "How'd your session go?" she asked brightly.

"Could have been worse. You?"

"I got to hold Lucy before I started, and play with animals during it. So I'd say it went pretty well."

"Good!"

"All good things, I hear?" asked Beckia, one of Eleven's mentors, coming into the room.

"Well, no bad things, so I guess so," Crixus replied.

"That's nice," smiled Beckia. "Let's go eat dinner and we'll quickly discuss tomorrow before the scores go up."

The Eleven team gathered around the table and quickly ate dinner before gathering back around the table to hear the training scores revealed.

"Good evening, Panem! I'm Harli Saleman."

"And I'm Dorian Muir. We're here tonight to reveal the training scores for your competitors in the First Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events! We're so excited to gain some insight into our competitors and what they have to offer!"

"Without further ado, let's begin."

Dorian reached off-screen and took a stack of little index cards. "First, our Capitol competitors. Silas Rune, in the Capitol male slot, has received a score of six! And their partner, Lyric Cloud, has also received a six."

"Representing District One, we have Winsley Vwy...Vwee… I can't say Winsley's last name. Anyway, he… she? They? Either way. Wins got a six. And the One female, Jessamine Rogers, also received a six."

"Representing District Two, Chloe Antoni, in the male slot, received a score of… hmm. Six. And her partner, Myranda Lidano, also received a six."

"Alexei Roth, the District Three male, also received a six. His partner, Sinsya Powers, received a six as well."

"From District Four. The male, Solomon Mikkelson, received a six. His partner, Amazon Brown, received a six."

"District Five. The male, Rochas Augustus, received a score of six. And their female, Luna Powell, also received a six."

"I think I'm seeing where this is going. Our District Six pair. Ventus Gorva received a score of six, as did his partner, Nell Edwards."

"Morrel Elmwyner and Sawyer Burns, from Seven, both received a six."

"As did the pair from Eight, Sage Davidson and Serenity Capiere."

"Aviel Nitsa and Liana Klepper from Nine received a score of six each."

"So did Kitt Mosley and Ramona Wayland from Ten."

"As well as Crixus Anjou and Mallory Farro from Eleven."

"Did the pair from Twelve, Alder Howe and Sharen Cantiano, receive sixes?"

"Yep. And same for Aelyx Stark and Henley Moriarty from Thirteen."

Harli and Dorian looked exasperated. "Well, that was a complete waste of time," concluded Harli. "In case you're just tuning in, literally everyone scored a six."

"We'll see you in two days for the hopefully less boring interviews! I'm Dorian Muir."

"And I'm Harli Saleman. Good night."

As soon as the broadcast finished, the entire Eleven team looked at Quiinn. "We all got sixes," Mallory said matter-of-factly.

"What does that mean?" asked Crixus.

Quiinn paused, allowing the other mentors to answer if they had any ideas. "Don't look at me," Ivie defended herself. "I'm the newest one here."

"I also have no idea," Beckia chimed in. "Skylar?" Skylar shrugged.

"Well, I have an idea, but don't tell Ruby that I was actually mentoring you guys. I think that the Gamemakers were trying to send a message to President Emerald that they believe that the system of training scores isn't working for these Games. During a regular Games, they're a poor marker of who'll actually win; how much the more so during the Events where we don't even know what the competitions will be yet? That's my guess, at least."

"So they, why would they leave it in at all?" asked Mallory. "Why not just get rid of the concept of private sessions entirely and do, like, a standardized test? Or do nothing?"

"Well, I think it comes from Ruby's desire to keep the Events as similar to the Games as possible. That, or she didn't want to give anybody a hint of what the competitions could be by giving a specific kind of test. Or there are too many different things being tested to effectively do that kind of test."

"Either way, I think it was silly," Crixus complained. "There's nothing to distinguish any of us for any other of us!"

"But that might be a good thing?" Mallory suggested.

"It's a waste of freaking time." Crixus retreated into his room, leaving the rest of the Eleven team in slight disbelief.

* * *

 **Oof! Sorry this chapter took comparatively long to get out. Because I'm on break right now, I decided to focus on some of the more complex and time-consuming stuff I needed to do, namely the randomizing and number drawing for the Events themselves. But that's done, so yay!**

 **I am still missing a bunch of second and third check-ins, as well as puzzle scores. Please send those in to me as soon as possible so I can finish randomizing and writing. One cool result of the randomizing is that I now have a very strong idea of who is leading the points section, though I don't know who will win because a lot of the participation sections remain to be tallied. But it's very exciting!**

 **Next chapter will be the interviews, and then we're going to move right into the Events! I hope you're as excited as I am.**

 **See you soon,**

 **Goldie031**


	28. Interviews

_Sawyer Burns, 18  
District Seven Female_

* * *

Sawyer was satisfied with the color she'd chosen. Purple was a good color for dresses. Of course, she'd chosen it because she liked the color, but it worked well. Better than some of the other colors, that's for sure. Alder's stylist had gone with a laughably cartoonish bright yellow suit for the boy with a matching yellow hat. And Rochas was wearing a neon green shirt under his black suit. Naturally, most of the girls had chosen better colors than most of the boys. Henley was the only girl who had chosen what Sawyer would consider a questionable color, and it even wasn't so bad.

Sawyer was most impressed by her stylist's commitment to the color. She was not only wearing a purple dress but also matching heels and a matching hair piece. She was glad that they hadn't chosen to match her lips to her color, though. (That would have been cool for whoever got red. But Chloe picked red. Sure, she was a girl, but she was also twelve. Twelve was too young for red lipstick.) Sawyer's favorite part of her outfit, though, was that she was wearing her engagement ring. She hadn't been allowed to wear it on the chariot rides for "aesthetic" purposes. And she'd chosen not to wear it for training just in case. But now, it was back on her finger, right where it belonged. While Sawyer had admittedly chosen to get to know her fiancée for his wealth initially, over the past year especially she had truly gotten to know Michael better. And she was prouder than ever to be marrying him, especially now that she realized that she actually missed him. They hadn't spent this much time apart for quite a while, and Sawyer really couldn't wait to get back to him.

"Hey, Sawyer! How are you?" said Amazon, joining the girl from Seven in the holding room and breaking Sawyer out of her thoughts. Amazon also could have had her dress match her lips, but that would be a bit of overkill, Sawyer figured, with the shade Amazon had picked.

"I'm good. I like your dress."

"Thank you."

"Are you and Lucy matching?"

"Yep. They designed my dress so that it could look good on Lucy too."

"They're really playing up your mom card."

"I know. But I like that. It means I get to spend more time with Lucy."

Sawyer suddenly noticed something odd. "Why does she have earmuffs on?"

"They're headphones so that things aren't too loud for her."

"That's so cute!"

"I know!"

Over the next little while, the rest of the competitors filtered in. When everyone was assembled, the stage manager began. "Hi everyone! My name is Portia, and I'm the stage manager for the interviews. I'm going to go over some procedures really quickly, and then we'll begin.

"Each of you is going to have three minutes on stage with Dorian for your interviews. There will be a quick three-minute break after the seventh and the twenty-first interviews, and a fifteen-minute break after the fourteenth. If you are on deck, you'll wait in the wings and wait for Dorian to call your name to come out. You're going to sit in these chairs and move down until you get to the closest chair to the stage. When you're done, you can feel free to go back upstairs to your rooms for the night.

"Now, for the order. As you know, we do the order randomly, so your district will not apply. I'm going to start at the farthest chair and call your name one at a time for your seats; so, in a confusing twist, the first name I call will be interviewing last, the second name I call second-to-last, et cetera. As you can see, there are only 26 chairs. The first person going for their interview will start on stage, and the second in the wings. Clear? Good. Listen up. In the farthest chair is Mallory. Then Sage. Luna. Winsley. Sharen. Jessamine. Aelyx. Rochas. Liana. Amazon. Aviel. Chloe. Sinsya. Crixus. Silas. Ramona. Alder. Morrel. Henley. Solomon. Lyric. Myranda. Kitt. Ventus. Nell. Alexei. Sawyer, you're starting in the wings. And Serenity, you're up first. Good luck everyone!"

Sawyer followed Serenity to the wings. Serenity had probably made the best color choice; regardless of the reasoning behind it, choosing black was a really good move. Once Dorian and the stage were set, Serenity joined him in the chair on stage. Sawyer was glad to be going after Serenity. That girl had not made a good impression on anyone during training, and from what she could remember, her chariot performance wasn't much better. Sawyer knew that things were randomized, so there wasn't anything they could do about Serenity starting things off. That meant two things for Sawyer. On the one hand, she would have an easy time doing better than Serenity. On the other hand, she _had_ to do better than Serenity, or all of the interviews would be messed up for everyone else. That was a lot of pressure. So Sawyer decided not to think about it and just go with her gut: be cute and bubbly and in love.

Who didn't like love?

* * *

 _Ventus Gorva, 18  
District Six Male_

* * *

These interviews had the potential to either go really well for Ventus or really poorly.

On the one hand, Ventus had the potential to come off as a really good guy to the assembled Capitol masses. He would be broadcasted to the entire country; this would be the best way to tell what really happened to his family and to clear his father's name while simultaneously dragging his mother's. That would be the ideal outcome.

On the other hand, Ventus was pretty sure that someone was watching him. He knew that he had a history vastly different from that of everyone else in the Events; meaning, he was pretty sure that he was the only one with an actual criminal record. He'd watched the way that the bigger criminals had been received during the Games. It wasn't good. Now, that wasn't to say that he had a major record. Ventus's Statutes were all for… he didn't know the official name. Brawling? Fist fighting? That sort of thing. There were much worse Statutes out there. But in the Events, when nobody else (he assumed) was under a Statute, he would stand out. Ventus knew that he needed to play up the family history part of things to make sure that he didn't become the most hated competitor right off the bat.

"Ventus, you ready?" the stage manager asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," smiled Ventus. He got up and straightened his gray suit jacket out, then buttoned his button before coming to the edge of the wings. On Dorian's cue, Ventus joined the interviewer on stage to a smattering of applause.

"Hi there, Ventus. How are you?"

"I'm doing well! Really enjoying myself here."

"How has the training process been going?"

"Good, all things considered. It's been great to get a sense of the things that are going to be included in the Events."

"Would you say you know what they're going to be?"

"Not entirely. Though, I do know that there will be a cooking competition involved."

"How are you so sure?"

"There was a cooking station. There is no other reason for there to be a cooking station unless cooking is involved in the Events."

Dorian nodded. "That's a fair point. Now, tell me about your home life. What is it like where you're from?"

"Well, the question of where I'm from is complicated. Because I live in Six, but I was born in One. So I don't really consider myself 'from' either district yet."

"You wouldn't say you're from One?"

"Not after what happened with my mother."

Dorian looked confused. "I have a feeling there's some intense backstory here. Do you want to tell us more?"

"Sure." Hopefully this worked. "So, I was born in One, as I mentioned. Unlike most kids in One, I didn't start training right away. My father didn't really want me involved with that. But then, when I turned ten, suddenly I started training. And then Malva, my sister, also started training at ten. I didn't understand how my father allowed that to happen. As I got older, we figured it out: my mom was abusive and manipulating my dad."

"Oh! That's horrible."

"Yeah. "Once that happened, we figured out that she was only having me and Malva train so she could have a Victor. It wasn't for our gain or district glory or any of the actual good reasons to volunteer. Once we figured this out, two things happened: first, I stopped being super into training. And second, my father filed for divorce and custody of Malva and me."

"So that must have been good for you, then."

"Well, sort of. Mom decided to try to make my dad's life hell. She began basically smearing his name everywhere and ruining his reputation in One. That made it really tough for him to actually get the divorce. But luckily, we did. And now we're in Six."

Dorian nodded sympathetically. "Are you still in contact with your mother?"

"I mean, no. We still hear about what she's doing in One, but we try to avoid it. I don't know if we could have stayed in One even if Mom hadn't sullied my father's name. But after that woman messed up my dad's reputation, there was no way we could stay. My mother was manipulative and abusive. There is no reason to stay in touch with her after she made my father's life worse so she wouldn't be harmed in the lawsuit that much."

"Very fair. So what are you going to do if you win?"

"You mean when I win?"

"This is a when situation."

"Yeah! There is no reason that I won't win. I've got this in the bag."

The buzzer sounded. "Well, Ventus, I wish you the best of luck in the Events. Anything you want to say to your mother before you go?"

"Mom, if you're seeing this, I'm sure as hell not doing this for you. I'm doing this for me."

* * *

 _Ramona Wayland, 13  
District Ten Female_

* * *

Ramona was aware enough of her position in the lineup that she had a feeling that it wasn't a coincidence. She was fourteenth, right before the intermission. They usually saved someone significant for that slot, which meant that her interview had to be really, really good.

Ramona wondered why they'd chosen her for the fourteenth slot. Technically, it was random. But Ramona figured that if they'd chosen someone like Rochas or Ventus for the fourteenth slot, they would have re-randomized so that, if one of them bombed, they could have a popular or nice competitor follow them. So they must have been satisfied with her there to leave the random order as it was. But why?

"Ramona, you're next," said the stage manager as Alder from Twelve took his place on stage. That was one really good thing: Ramona was following Alder. He was cute, but that was about it; going back-to-back with Alder meant that Ramona would be able to play up her intelligence in comparison. She knew that it would be hard to be the smart one this year, with Sinsya, Alexei, and Morrel all not only in the Events but in her alliance. But that was the best angle for her that she and her mentors could figure out. So that was what she had to go with.

"Last before intermission is our District Ten girl, Ramona Wayland!"

Ramona smoothed her hands out on her short-sleeved, deep purple dress before confidently striding onto the stage. She took her seat next to Dorian, giving him a polite handshake. "Hi, Dorian!"

"Hello there, Ramona! How are you?"

"I'm doing well, thanks! How are you?"

"I'm doing well, thank you."

"So tell me, Ramona, how have you been enjoying your time here in the Capitol?"

"It's been great! It's been so cool to explore an area outside of Ten."

"And you got to reconnect with your friend, right?"

"Yeah, Alexei! We grew up together in Ten before he got into a special program in Three."

"I was talking to him about that earlier! It's quite impressive. Did you keep in touch with him while he was away?"

"A little bit. We were pen pals, but we didn't really do a good job of keeping in touch. But now we get to see each other!"

"That's so exciting for you!"

"Yeah! It's been really cool to get to know him even better still."

"Have you been nervous at all about being here?"

Ramona was confused. "Why would I be nervous?"

"Well, you are the third Wayland to be here in the Capitol. And things didn't go so well for the other two."

Now Ramona understood why she was in the fourteenth slot. She was the legacy competitor; of course they would want to highlight her. "Well, I'm not personally nervous because I trust President Emerald that these won't be the Games. They're the Events. I know that I'll be safe here."

"Do you carry your aunt and uncle's legacy with you?"

"Well, I'm named after Rowena. And my brother Hunter is sort of kind of named after Viktor. So my brother and I do always have their legacies with us. The function of our lives is to remember them."

"Do you think that's why your parents only had two children?"

"I mean, I don't know. That would only impact my father, and my mother may have had another reason to not want more, or my dad did actually want more and my mom didn't. I don't know. I'm not my parents. But, I do have this." Ramona pulled a necklace out from her pocket. "This is my Aunt Rowena's token from her Games."

"The real one she used?"

"The real one. My dad gave it to me when he said goodbye. He said that he made the wolf charm himself and that my Aunt Fleur, his younger sister, made this mockingjay charm. In the Games, Rowena had one half of the heart and Viktor had the other, but this time, I have Rowena's half and Daddy has Viktor's."

"That's amazing! Have you watched any of the Games in which your aunt participated?"

Ramona sighed. "No, I haven't. My parents never let me. Which, considering that I now know what the Quell twist was, was probably a good thing. Didn't those Games get pulled from circulation as a result?"

"Well, there were other reasons," Dorian smiled. "Now, tell me about what you like to do at home."

"I mostly like reading and stuff like that. Things that challenge my brain in that way. But I also like writing and telling stories the same as reading them."

At that moment, the buzzer went off. "Well, it was great to meet you and get to know you, Ramona! You're doing your aunt and uncle very proud."

"Thank you!" That was the best compliment anyone could have given her.

* * *

 _Chloe Antoni, 12  
District Two "Male"_

* * *

Chloe sat in her assigned seat, between Sinsya and Aviel, the weight of what she was about to do fully apparent to her. Sure, she knew that she'd been announced at almost every other point during the Events as Chloe. But her chariot costume had been fairly agender, all things considered. Today, during her interview, she'd be publicly proclaiming her gender, distancing herself permanently from her parents.

Now she just had to win.

Chloe was confident in her gender, that was for sure. When her prep team put her in the red taffeta dress she was to wear for her interview, she had exploded in happiness. But there was a certain fear that came along with rejecting everything she'd ever known at home. Regardless of how the Events panned out, she would need to move somewhere else once they were done.

Thankfully, she'd met Winsley. That kid was so special and confident. He'd already told her that if she was unable to return home, she could come to his house. That was so sweet of him! Chloe was lucky to have met him.

When she thought about Winsley, Chloe's stomach fluttered. But she was a little bit nervous about forming a relationship with him. She wasn't sure if she would feel the same way about Wins when he was male and when she was female. She'd been selected as a girl, but Chloe had only really known him as a boy. So it would be interesting to see tomorrow, when Wins identified as female, how Chloe felt. Maybe she could love wins in both cases. Because Chloe did think she loved him.

"Chloe?" said a stage manager. "You're up next."

Chloe stood up and made her way to the wings. She waited patiently for Sinsya to finish her interview. Then, as Dorian introduced her, she strode out confidently onto the stage, climbing into the chair next to him. To her dismay, her feet didn't reach the ground. They didn't even come close.

"Well, hello there, Chloe!"

"Hi, Dorian! How are you?"

"I'm doing very well, thanks for asking! So let's get right into it. I'm sure you have an idea of what we're going to talk about today."

"My gender?"

"That's right! What a smart girl," Dorian smiled. "So tell me, how did you discover that you identify as transgender?"

"Well, I think I've always known it. From a very young age, I hated the suits and ties that my parents made me wear on formal days. I didn't like my name, Plato, and I didn't like being forced into a masculine box. It took some time for me to figure out whether I wanted to be a girl or whether I just didn't want to be a boy. But then, once I really started wearing dresses and such, it became clear to me that I was a girl!"

"That's so sweet! How did you choose the name Chloe? Did you choose it?"

"Well, there are a few reasons. The name Chloe means 'blooming,' which I liked because I was blooming into more of who I want to be. But also, Chloe was a name that my parents had considered for me, and for the sister I never had. So when I chose a name, I wanted to choose something that my parents would like so that they would accept my new identity."

"Did they?"

Chloe knew this question was coming. "No. I came out to them about a year ago now, and they refused to accept my identity. They kept calling me Plato, no matter what I said otherwise."

"Do they now?"

"Nope. They said I could only earn the right to be called Chloe if I won the Games. But I get the best of both worlds with the Events. I have a chance to win without dying. And besides, I've already come out as Chloe to the world. If they don't accept me when I go home, so be it!"

The audience applauded. "Chloe, you're a brave girl," Dorian marveled.

"If I can be myself with my identity, then maybe some other kids around Panem can be brave enough to come out to their parents as well. Transphobia and homophobia have no place in this country, and I aim to be an ambassador for those who cannot come out."

"Do you think living in Two has an impact on the opinions of those around you?"

"Potentially. Two is still the most binary district; we train by gender still, and one person of each gender enters the Games. But I think it is possible to rise above the opinions strengthened by the culture in your district."

"That's very wise, Chloe. Now, to move on to the Events. Do you have any sense of what could possibly happen while you're in the Arena?"

Chloe thought for a moment. "I think it's going to be a variety of things, obviously. But I'm not sure. I don't think speculating is going to do much good, though. We'd be better off just waiting and seeing."

The buzzer sounded. "Well, that's all the time we have today. Thank you so much for being with us, the inspirational Chloe Antoni!"

Chloe left the stage to cheers and applause. She, more than ever, felt that she'd done her district proud.

* * *

 _Rochas Augustus, 17  
District Five Male_

* * *

Rochas watched as competitor after competitor took their turn on stage. It was all making him sick. These children, who were, by all accounts, good kids, were stooping to the level of the Capitolites, who were energy-guzzling swine. And not just stooping to their level, but sticking up to them! There was no reason that they should be doing that. And Rochas was going to show them how it was really done.

"All right, Rochas, you're up next," the stage manager said, as Amazon, holding her daughter, crossed paths with Aviel in front of Rochas.

"Got it," Rochas drawled. He stood up and smoothed out his dress pants, then stood up at the edge of the wings. He watched as Aviel did incredibly well at his interview, demonstrating a mix of eagerness and determination while being utterly charming.

Rochas was not utterly charming. Nor did he intend to be.

Aviel finished his interview to respectable applause. As he exited the stage, Dorian said, "Now, let's welcome everyone's favorite environmentalist, Rochas Augustus from District Five!"

As Rochas came onto the stage, he sensed the audience's attitude shift. While they were totally willing to support and applaud Aviel, they were hesitant to throw the same support behind him. A wiser competitor would have tried to get the audience on his side. Rochas was not so wise.

"How are you, Rochas?"

"Meh."

"Are you enjoying yourself in the Capitol?" Dorian attempted to get Rochas to talk.

"No."

"Well, why not?"

That opened a whole can of worms. "I think that the Capitol is a horrendous place because of the extreme waste of resources and energy that perpetually takes place here. You… people are spending so much money on clothing that you do not need and exorbitant amounts of food and use up so much energy on the lights and I just don't understand it."

"But is it not beautiful?"

"Waste is not beautiful! We are destroying our planet because of you!"

"But we have moved towards renewable energy in the past few years, especially after the redistricting."

"But the light pollution is still bad! I have had half a mind to destroy transformers and whatnot to prevent that very problem."

"Clearly, you're very into the importance of our environment," Dorian quickly jumped in, attempting to save Rochas's butt.

"Why, yes! I don't understand why any imbecile wouldn't always be thinking about that. We've already had one apocalypse of mass destruction; why risk a second one? You Capitolites are destroying the ecosystem by eating so much meat and consuming and wasting everything!"

"How did you get interested in saving the environment?" encouraged Dorian.

"It was the right thing to do," Rochas said. "The world has the potential to be a gorgeous place. Why don't we work towards making it better?"

"Did your family have any impact on that?"

"My parents both passed in a quarry accident. So definitely not."

"Do you miss them?"

"Meh. I can't think about my parents when the whole world is at stake!"

Dorian again attempted to change the subject. "Rochas, where did you grow up?"

"Unfortunately, in Two. The district with the worst environmental efforts in Panem, and they definitely haven't been getting better since the redistricting. We quarry and we knock things out of places and ruin our world!"

Despite Dorian's best attempts, Rochas finished off his interview by yelling, screaming, railing and basically doing everything that he could possibly do to make the Capitolites hate him. Rochas saw the relief on Dorian's face when the interview was over. The boy was perceptive enough to recognize that his interviewer had been trying his hardest to make him likable. But there was nothing that Rochas wanted less than to be liked by those vile Capitolites.

Having finished his interview, Rochas went back up to the Five floor to wait for the rest of the team; after all, Luna still had yet to go. There were only seven or so people after him, so it wouldn't take all that long until everyone was back upstairs. Rochas could have chosen to get something to eat, but he didn't want to support the Capitol system. He could have chosen to turn on the television to watch the interviews, but that would have meant using electricity. Instead, Rochas requested a candle. He went into his quarters, turned off the lights, lit the candle, and pulled out a book to read.

Rochas didn't know how much time had passed. The last thing he remembered was something stabbing into his neck, and the world quickly went black.

* * *

 **Well, there are the interviews! What did you think? Did you like Sawyer's section? I wanted to try something new. What's going on with Rochas?**

 **A couple of housekeeping things. This is our third or fourth audience participation point (I lost count)! As a reminder: this is** _ **mandatory**_ **for those of you who have competitors in the story, and HIGHLY ENCOURAGED for those of you who do not. The code word for the chapter is WINE.**

 **Secondly, I'm going to have to push back the start of the Events by one chapter. I can't say why yet, but I can give you the following hint: my story does not have something that most of the other good stories on this site have. Any guesses?**

 **Goldie031**


	29. Interlude: Seeing Cerise

After the interviews finished, Ruby and her kids walked over to the Gamemakers' Center to handle some last-minute things. Garnet and Ruby walked in front of Cerise, talking in hushed tones that Cerise couldn't hear. And Cerise wasn't thrilled about it.

Cerise was thirteen years older than Garnet. Up until about ten years ago, there was no doubt that Cerise would take on the presidency; even as her brother grew up, she was still the older sister, and Garnet had basically no interest in it. So Cerise had done what she thought her mother wanted her to do: settle down early with a husband and a family, and remain involved enough in government, meaning not too involved. After all, how much did the president really do? Her future in the country, as its leader, was secure.

Then came the Fifth Quarter Quell. The goddamn Fifth Quell. The year when Cerise's life changed forever.

For the worse.

For whatever reason, her baby brother, the one who had no interest in government, who had vocally protested the Selection, became incredibly interested in government and very, very popular nationally. Her mother's opinion on which kid would take over clearly began to shift. Now, Cerise didn't seem like the shoo-in for president anymore. And as the nearly ten years since that day had passed, she was becoming surer of that fact. Cerise had once confronted her mother about it. But her mother's response was simple: "He's more involved in the future than you are."

That was the other problem. The "future." The country of Panem was now unrecognizable from the one that she'd grown up in! Cerise could not understand why her mother wanted to change a system that was working under President Snow. He had settled on the no-change clause because it was working, and he didn't want anything to mess it up. Now the industries were all changed, and even worse, the Games were on their way out. The single most important institution in Panem were nearly gone! Without them, there would be no reminder for the districts to not rebel. Things could go so badly in a way that Ruby could not understand without the Games. For the security of Panem, they needed to remain in existence. And all of the provisions that Ruby had included had to be removed. The whole point of the Games was to show that the Capitol was better than everyone else, and that anyone was susceptible to the Capitol's wrath and power. Thirteen could stay in the Games, but that was the only change that could remain, because they were a district, after all; even if the redistricting was undone, they could stay.

The worst part of all for Cerise was that her closest friend and cousin, Violet, was ceding to Ruby's diabolical plan. Instead of holding firm to the proper beliefs, every other Emerald

The three Emeralds arrived at the Center and made their way to the room where final preparations were being made for the next day's Events. "Did everything go according to plan tonight?" Ruby asked a Gamemaker.

"Yes. Everyone is prepared for tomorrow."

"Good work, everyone. Now, Cerise, I have to talk over some stuff with your father. So feel free to go home, because you're not needed."

"All right, mother."

Cerise was mad. Things were being kept from her, incredibly important things about her country's future. Why was her mom hiding them?

Something needed to be done.

Cerise had told her husband that she would be home late that night, because she'd need to help out in the Gamemakers' Center. But instead, she ventured out into the Capitol proper, making her way to a building she'd read about in some of the few dossiers she'd been allowed to read. Cerise found the side entrance, knocked on the door, and descended to the basement.

"What are you doing here?" said the man in the room.

"I wish to join you," she said.

"No you don't," he said. "You're just a mole for your mother."

"I want to take her down. This country is not the country I grew up in. And I want to bring it back."

"You know that that is not entirely our goal, right?"

"But you alone have the resources to bring on a full-scale rebellion."

The man thought for a moment. Then he reached out his hand. "For now, you have a deal. But this is very temporary."

"That is good to hear, Alexios. Very good to hear."

* * *

 **What is my story missing that most other good stories have? A good antagonist. Short chapter, I know, but it gets the point I needed to across.**

 **I'm still missing a bunch of check-ins. I'll post a list on my profile with what I'm missing from whom at this point, but if you have a question, send me a PM!**

 **A quick note regarding POVs. Every character by this point has had a POV, and I'm going to try my absolute best to keep them even as we go through the story. But one thing that I've noticed about the storylines I'm developing is that not every character is fitting in to them. In the Games, you can kill them off. But these are not the Games. So those characters will probably have more narrational roles. I apologize in advance to the submitters whose characters aren't featured as much as some others, but as a consolation, I'll remind you that your characters aren't going to die.**

 **It might be a little while until the next chapter goes up, because I have to do some more long-term planning. But I promise I will finish the story! Not that that was a concern. Anyway, see y'all then!**

 **-goldie031**


	30. Blow a Kiss, Fire a Gun

_Amazon Brown, 18  
District Four Female_

* * *

Amazon woke up in a panic. The last thing she remembered was a prick in her back, and someone taking Lucy out of her hands. Now, she was sitting in a cell, tied up, and no baby in sight. Where was Lucy? Was she OK? Lucy had to be OK. Violet wouldn't let her not be OK.

Amazon surveyed her surroundings as calmly as she could. The cell that she was in had only one exit, a door. In front of her were a bunch of pieces of something, she just didn't know what. Amazon couldn't quite turn her head around, but she had a feeling that something was behind her that would be important later on. Notably, she couldn't see a camera.

Then, Amazon looked at her outfit. When she saw it, she realized that the Gamemakers weren't kidding when they said that they'd be wearing their color. She was in some sort of uniform; not a peacekeeper uniform, but she couldn't figure out what it was. It was pink, with blue stripes here and there, and a royal blue number four above her heart. She also noticed some sort of watch with a screen on her wrist, and what she figured was a microphone clipped onto her collar.

The voice of Harli came through the speakers. "Good morning, competitors, and welcome to the First Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events! As I'm sure you can guess the Events have already begun. Some explanation to you is in order. And Amazon, I've been told to inform you that Lucy is in Lilac's care."

Amazon felt a wash of relief. For anyone else, it might be embarrassing to be called out like that by the announcer, but it was exactly what she needed to hear. Lucy was safe. Now she just had to find her.

"As you know, the competitions for the Events are linked by a common theme. This theme is our country! The competitions for every day of the events will be based on the current or former industries of each district in our country. The order was set so that each district is touching the one that comes after it.

"Our first district to highlight is Thirteen, the newest district in Panem – though that's kind of an incorrect statement, as Thirteen was originally a part of Panem. Anyway. Thirteen was originally in charge of graphite mining and nuclear power, but we are going to be focusing today on the modern Thirteen: our peacekeeper, police, and military training. You are currently wearing a modified version of the uniform that our military wears. For your morning challenge, you are going to be partaking in something that all of our cadets do during their time in basic training.

"As you can see, you are tied up. All of you are tied up in the same way. It is possible to get out of these ties. We have tried this with everyone from tiny twelve-year-olds to much larger eighteen-year-olds. Your first task of this morning challenge is to get out of the ties. Then, you will put together the gun that is sitting in front of you. Once you have done that, the button behind your chair will turn green. You will press the button to drop the wall revealing a number of targets. Once you hit the red section of each target, you will lock in your time, which will come back into play later today. Are there any questions? Just speak them out loud; I can hear them."

There was silence for a while in Amazon's room, until Harli's voice came through again. "The question was raised about the number of bullets in the gun, as well as the number of bullets you have. The pistols are actually a special kind of laser pistol that will shoot out laser bullets. However, in the spirit of the six-round shotguns, there will be a waiting period after every six shots equivalent to the amount of time that it would take to reload the gun, more or less. Are there any other questions?

"Good. The clock will begin on my go. Three, two, one, go!"

* * *

 _Aelyx Stark, 18  
District Thirteen Male_

* * *

Aelyx didn't know what Harli was talking about when she said that this challenge was one that every cadet did when they went through basic training. Aelyx went through basic training, and he had never been tied up. Having said that, he had gone through resident basic training, so maybe this was one they did for the people who enlisted in the army from other districts. He figured he'd give Violet the benefit of the doubt.

"Three, two, one, go!"

Aelyx instinctively began scanning the rope for a loose knot. All he needed to do was find one relatively loose knot and get his hand over there, to wriggle his hand out through it. He began moving his arm across back and forth as much as he could, until he was able to squeeze his right arm out from under the ropes. Then, he pushed down the rope constricting his right arm with his left arm, allowing him to squeeze it out as well. Once that was done, getting the ropes untied was a piece of cake. He had to give the Capitol credit; they'd done a great job of tying up every last limb.

Once Aelyx got out of the ropes, things were easy. He might never have been tied up before, but he certainly knew how to put together a gun. Granted, he'd never seen _this_ type of gun before, but no one type of gun was too different from any other type. Aelyx was quickly able to analyze the pieces and swiftly put it together correctly. The button turned green.

Admittedly, putting together a gun was not Aelyx's strong suit. He was, however, excellent at firing a gun. An entire week of his training was spent practicing firing his gun, so that if push came to shove, firing accurately would be instinctive. Aelyx had the ability to take his time in this case, so he carefully steadied himself before firing his gun at each target, hitting them perfectly in the center.

DING!

Aelyx hoped that the other Events weren't quite so suited to his skillset. It was really unfair to the other competitors.

* * *

 _Myranda Lidano, 18  
District Two Female_

* * *

Myranda knew the pressure was on as soon as she got the signal. She knew full-well the pressure that would be put on her to become a Victor. Two needed to make its mark on the Events, and Chloe sure as hell wasn't going to do nearly as well as Myranda would. That wasn't to say that Chloe would do badly, or that Myranda was being egotistical. Chloe was just twelve and tiny, and Myranda was eighteen. It was just more likely, due to size and physical strength, that Myranda would do better. So she needed to do as well as possible. And Myranda was confident that she'd be starting off on the right foot, for this challenge would not be all that difficult.

Sure, she was currently all tied up. And that certainly made things difficult. But she was more than capable of doing everything that the challenge entailed. It wasn't that she was bragging, it was that she knew what was doing. Maybe not as well as Aelyx, who was a soldier, but she could shoot a gun. She could aim. It was the other stuff that was the question.

But it couldn't go that badly.

The first problem was how to get out of the ropes. Myranda began by kind of worming around, but that didn't seem to be working. Then, she got an idea. Her legs were just long enough that her feet touched the floor. Carefully, Myranda managed to stand up, even though the weight of the chair was on her back. Then, she turned around and backed up very quickly into a wall. "Well, I think it started to work," she murmured to herself. She repeated that action a number of times, hoping to break the chair and loosen the ropes. It would have been a good strategy if it didn't take quite so long. See, the chair wasn't exactly easy to break. It took Myranda an absurd about of time to get the chair into such a state that she could slip out of it. Finally, though, it worked! Myranda was out of the ropes. Maybe it wasn't the fastest way to do things, but it did the trick.

Now came what would probably be the hardest part for her: putting the gun together. Myranda had definitely fired a gun before, but she'd never put one together before. She decided to focus on trying to lay out the gun the way she knew a gun looked, and then try to piece things together. It took Myranda a few minutes, but she finally got the gun to fit together, or so she thought. But the button did not turn green.

Myranda didn't freak out. She figured things just weren't tight enough. Carefully, she pushed the pieces of the gun closer together.

But the button still didn't turn green.

Maybe there was a piece in backwards. Methodically and calmly, Myranda went piece by piece, going through every one and turning it in every direction she could think of. But nothing worked. She tried what she figured was every combination, but still, nothing worked. Frustrated, Myranda resorted back to her initial position. And for whatever reason, this time, the button turned green. She had no idea what she did differently, but she recognized that throwing the gun in frustration would not do anything for her; more likely, it would cause more problems. Instead, she pushed the button and turned to the targets.

Now came the easy part. She'd been shooting at things with other things for years in many different capacities. Myranda held up the gun to shoot, but as she was getting ready, she inadvertently fired the trigger. "Damn," she said. "I guess the gun is super sensitive. Good to know."

Myranda managed to hit four of the six targets in the first round. On the second round, she forgot that the gun was trigger-happy and held down the trigger, causing all six bullets to fire at the same target. Admittedly, they all did hit the target. But it didn't help with the hitting the last target thing. Finally, on her third round, she hit the last target and heard a DING!

Now it was a question of whether her strategy had paid off. Myranda figured she wouldn't find out where she placed for a while, possibly at all.

* * *

 _Morrel Elmwyner, 14  
District Seven Male_

* * *

The first thing Morrel did when the clock started was wriggle around violently in his chair. He couldn't think of any other way to get out of the tie other than physical strength; that seemed to make the most sense to him. Unfortunately, it wasn't working, as Morrel discovered when he nearly tipped the chair over. He needed to find another way to get out of these stupid ropes because this would probably be the easiest part for him.

Great.

Morrel decided to pause for a moment and think. He figured that the Gamemakers wouldn't completely throw the tributes in the lurch; there needed to be some way to get out of the ropes that wasn't brute strength, because Morrel was not particularly strong, and there were competitors weaker than him. When he looked down, Morrel found his answer. Because he noticed that one of his hands was tied palm-down, and the other hand was tied palm-up. Carefully, and a bit painfully, he rotated his forearm so that his palm was facing his left and bent his wrist the same way. Morrel was just able to reach the end of a rope, which he pulled, allowing him to untie one knot. Conveniently, that helped him to get out of the rope that was across his left forearm.

Suddenly, there was a whole new world of possibilities. He was able to bend his elbow now, giving him access to all of the knots in the ropes tied across his chests. After quite some time, Morrel successfully managed to untie all of the ropes and free himself.

Next was the gun part. Morrel had never put together a gun before, but he was decent with computer stuff. Not that he'd ever put one of those together, either. Morrel decided to approach putting the gun together the way that he would approach any math problem or anything else: piece by piece. He had seen the Peacekeepers' guns, so he started by trying to lay out the pieces in more or less the format that he recognized from those guns. It took a few tries, but eventually he figured out the way to get the gun together. Morrel was quite relieved when the button turned green.

Now came what would inevitably be the hardest part for him: firing at the targets. Morrel recognized that there was no way for him to successfully hit all of the targets in his first round of bullets. Instead, he decided to use the first round of bullets to get used to the gun and figure out how it fired, then use the second round to aim for the targets. Morrel held the gun and fired, accidentally shooting himself with the laser.

That was a dumb mistake.

Morrel fired a few more times, hitting the edge of one of the targets, which was pretty good. After his sixth shot, a little green light on the gun turned red. He waited for a while until it turned green, then fired the gun again. This time, he didn't even come close.

Round of six shots after round of six shots, Morrel missed the target. He just couldn't seem to hit them! It was frustrating the normally calm and collected kid; Morrel couldn't shake the fact that he was unable to do this thing that should have been simple. What kept him going was that he hadn't heard anything to indicate that other people had finished. Maybe nobody else had finished yet, however unlikely that might be! He kept trying and trying and trying, but it was no use. Morrel couldn't figure out this damn gun at all! He might as well give up. It went against his nature. But there was no way to do this.

Morrel threw the gun across the room. As it clattered to the floor, something shifted inside of it. Morrel looked closer and saw a glass circle of some sort pop out of the gun. He'd seen something like this before: people used it to aim the gun. That was a huge help. Confidence regained, Morrel picked up the gun and tried again. On the sixth bullet, he finally hit a target.

There was no bigger confidence booster than success.

Once his gun had powered back up again, Morrel carefully fired it, one at a time, towards the rest of the targets. This time, partly due to his regained patience and partly with the help of the glass circle, Morrel succeeded.

DING!

And he still hadn't heard anything to indicate that anyone else had finished! Maybe he still had a chance!

* * *

 **Here we have our first challenge! What do you think of the theme of the Events? What order do you think these four finished in? Remember that there are still another 24 competitors we didn't see.**

 **I am not going to reveal the final placements of the challenge. If you all would like, I can write down the way that I calculated the placements, but that'll be a pretty lengthy section of the chapter. So let me know what you think about it! Also, know that I am tracking POVs in this story. So don't worry about that :).**

 **Please check my profile to see if you're missing a check-in. The next one will come in a few chapters. I'll see you next time for the District Thirteen afternoon challenge!**

 **Yours,  
goldie031**


	31. Anybody Have a Map?

"It's so annoying to not be able to help them out," lamented Danira in the break between competitions. "Like, all I want to do is give them advice!"

"Speak for yourself," groaned Arabelle, the Two mentor. "Nell got fourth! My competitor decided to spend over an hour and a half slamming her chair into the wall. What could have possibly made her think that was the way to go?"

"My district's competitors did well," Nissan piped up.

"Speak for yourself. You had the soldier and the spy!" Arabelle exclaimed. "My trained Career is in last place."

Byte, a mentor from Three, jumped instinctively between Nissan and Arabelle. "Advice for you, Nissan: don't instigate the Careers."

"It's all in fun," Arabelle smiled. "I wasn't going to hurt him, especially because there's no danger in the Games. But it is frustrating. You'll see over time."

At that moment, a voice came over the loudspeaker. "Attention mentors. Will Nissan, Danira, Byte, and Khara please come to the side room."

"The mentors of the top four competitors," mused Danira. She and the other three left the rest of the mentors and went into the side room, where they found essentially a mission control set up. Two long tables seemed to be attached to the walls with space in the center of the room for the four swivel chairs, two at each table. Five giant monitors were on each wall, one showing each of the competitors who belonged to the mentors in the room and one showing a bird's eye view of a giant maze. Each seat also had a headset attached to the underside of the table. Instinctively, Danira and Khara sat at one table, still bonded by their connection from the Selection, and Byte and Nissan sat together at the other. With the door to the side room still open, the voice of Violet came through the loudspeakers, just as it had before the first competition, to explain the rules to both the mentors and the competitors.

"Hello, competitors, and welcome to the evening challenge representing District Thirteen! Today, we're going to be paying homage to the pre-rebellion Thirteen which, as you know, was completely underground. The underground complex still exists today, but it is much less of a maze than it once was. You may have guessed where we're going with this. That's right, it's an underground maze!

"Each of you is currently in a room underground. All you have to do is leave the room and navigate the maze until you find your launch tube, which will bring you into the Arena proper. Now, obviously this is very difficult to do, so you'll have some help. Please look up for the parachute that will contain your advantage. There is also a twist to this challenge, but that you'll have to find out for yourselves.

"Oh, one more thing. You are going to be released in a staggered fashion based proportionally to the time that it took you to finish the first challenge. You will hear a bell in your room when it's time to go, and the door will unlock. Good luck, competitors!"

Violet's voice was replaced by the automated voice. "Some important information for the mentors. The tributes who ranked in the top four will have their mentors guiding them through the maze. Places 5 through 16 will receive a special map; you'll see more information when the competitors get the maps. And then the lowest places will be exclusively guided by their watches, which will glow green when they are going the right way and red when they are going the wrong way. Also, the twist is that not all of the tubes are in the same place. Do not tell your competitors that; all that you need to do is get them to their tube. On the big monitors in your rooms, your competitor will be represented by a moving dot and their tube by a line through a wall in the maze. Are you ready?"

"Yes," chorused the mentors.

"Good luck, everyone." The mentors in the side room slid on their headsets as the door to their room closed. Loudly and clearly, a bell rang through the mentor room.

The challenge was on!

* * *

 _Henley Moriarty, 16  
District Thirteen Female_

* * *

Henley was satisfied with this challenge. The morning challenge was much more up her alley, but this one couldn't be too difficult. There was no easy way to navigate a maze that nobody had seen before, so other than whatever these advantages were and the staggered start times, everyone was basically on the same level. That was probably good for some of the people who placed lower in the earlier challenge, but not so good for the people who placed higher like Henley, who was really just losing any advantage she might have gained earlier.

Henley looked up to the sky as the parachute came down. She caught it and opened the box, finding a headset. "Hello?" Henley said, slipping her headset on.

"Hi, Henley. It's Khara."

"Khara! How are you doing?"

"Doing well. You did great in the first challenge. I can't tell you how you did, but it was very good."

"Yay. How did Aelyx do?"

"I also can't say that, but you did very well."

After a few moments, a bell rang in Henley's room. Henley burst out the door, then stopped. "Khara, which way do I go?"

"Hmm." Henley was met by radio silence. "I'm basically just trying to trace the map on my end right now. Nissan is basically just trying to have Aelyx move randomly, which I don't think is going to help. Wow, this is really complex."

"Would it help if I start moving so you could trace?"

"Ya know, yeah. Let's see if this method works. Here's what I think you're gonna do: keep walking straight until I tell you to stop or turn. That'll give me some time to think. Henley, do you have water on you?"

"No."

Khara sighed. "You might need it. I don't know how long this will take. No matter. Just start walking."

Henley slowly ambled along on the path. She really wasn't sure if Khara's strategy was an effective one. But then again, she didn't know if there was any strategy that would actually be effective in this case. Henley had a hunch that there would be an imperfection with any advantage that a competitor was given, because the Gamemakers wouldn't just want to hand someone the win. Her guess was that, since Khara was leading her, she was the only one who had both a full view of the maze and the knowledge of where Henley was in the maze. But Henley didn't like that she didn't know where she was going. She hoped that it wouldn't turn into the blind leading the blind.

"All right. Take a right. Keep going a little. Now take a left. Good!"

"Am I going the right way?"

"I'm pretty sure. This maze is so big that it's really hard to tell."

Henley kept moving along, doing her best to work with Khara. She felt that this challenge would be much easier if she had a closer relationship with Khara. It wasn't that she didn't like her, more that the two weren't particularly close. If, say, Ivie and Mallory, who were much closer friends, were working together like Henley and Khara were, they would do really, really well. Henley hoped that none of the other competitors who got the same advantage she did had a close relationship with their mentor.

As Henley kept moving, she came upon a tube with a black rim and bottom, a black 8 on the door, and a purple line around the middle. "Is that Serenity's tube?"

"Correct," said Khara.

I sense some anxiety in your voice."

"No, don't worry about it. Just keep moving."

"All right."

Being in SpOps, it was in Henley's nature to deduce everything she could from the simple statements others said. She had a remarkable ability to figure out exactly what other people meant or were thinking without saying it. So, she had a feeling that either there was something about Serenity's tube that she wasn't supposed to see or that there was something that happened with Serenity that also caught Khara off guard. But what could that be?

* * *

 _Serenity Capiere, 13  
District Eight Female_

* * *

The only thing Serenity had to get her through this infernal maze was this watch on her arm. It could be worse, she recognized; it was possible that someone got nothing. So she was at least grateful to have a help. But not having a concept of the layout of the Arena was a bit of a problem.

She'd very quickly learned during the last challenge that nobody was going to help her during these Events. She had waited for quite a long time for someone to come in and untie her from the chair, but nobody did. But there was something that happened when she actually finished the challenge.

She felt good.

Serenity knew that she hadn't done incredibly well; after all, she'd wasted a lot of time just waiting. But there was something about doing it herself that was pretty special. Like she'd actually done something with her life.

She figured that it was just a fluke. Putting effort into things wasn't her style. But this competition didn't need all that much effort. All Serenity needed to do was follow her watch.

Casually, Serenity walked down the corridor of the maze. She wasn't moving incredibly quickly, but it was still green. Until she passed a junction, when it wasn't green. Instinctively, she turned around and turned one way. The watch was red. Turning around, she went the other way down that corridor. Now it was green!

This competition made a lot of sense. And it really didn't take all that much effort. This was something Serenity could get behind.

As Serenity navigated through the maze, she found herself constantly choosing the right way to turn in the right passages. There were so many different ways to turn, but she somehow kept moving the right way, and her watch kept glowing green. She didn't feel like she was putting effort into the competition. But she slowly began to walk a little faster with a little more pep in her step, moving through the maze with purpose. Serenity was competing for _something_ , which was a really unusual concept for her. It was cool having a purpose.

But she wasn't really putting effort into this. Definitely not.

By a certain point in the competition, Serenity noticed a pattern; her watch was more likely to turn red when she passed a turn. So when she was running – no, walking; she wasn't running – w _alking_ straight down a corridor and her watch suddenly changed colors, she got very confused. Serenity started pacing back and forth down the corridor, watching her watch spazz from green to red to green to red to green…

Then Serenity noticed a tube with a black rim and bottom, a black 8 on the door, and a purple line around the middle. It was her tube! She stepped into it and closed the door strongly; after a moment, she began to lift up into what looked like a very simple house. The natural sunlight was a little blinding for she who had been underground for so long.

"Congratulations, Serenity," said a voice, startling the girl. "You have completed your challenge and your time has been locked in. You now have a choice. You may stay in this house for as long as you'd like until tomorrow's competitions being, or you may leave and mingle with the other competitors in the courtyard for some time tonight. The trick is that all of the other competitors also have the same choice, so even if you have not finished first, it may come across as such because you are the first in the courtyard. It is up to you whether you want to risk having a target on your back. You will hear a bell when it is time for dinner, and we will notify you when you must return to this house for curfew, after which you cannot leave until the morning's competitions begin. Have a good night!"

Serenity couldn't understand why leaving the house would put a target on her back. Confidently, and prepared to lie, she strode into the courtyard, ready to greet her fellow competitors.

* * *

 _Jessamine Rogers, 16  
District One Female_

* * *

Jess could see how this map could be helpful. For a tribute who was better able to visualize things, a map would actually be great, and probably the preferable option of the two. But for Jess, who wasn't really able to visualize anything, the other option would have been much, much better. At least that way, she'd know which way she was supposed to be going. Jess could not figure out how to take what she saw on the paper and translate it to the walls that she saw, especially because she had no indication on the paper of where in the maze she was. There was no starting point, no ending point, and no scale; basically, nothing useful.

Jess arbitrarily picked a direction and began to walk confidently, because at that point, that was her best bet. She started walking until she reached the first gap on her right side, then turned and kept walking the same way until she found a dead end. Frustrated, Jess turned around, and kept walking until she saw a gap on her left side. After walking a bit more, she found herself exactly back where she started.

Great.

Jess kept walking, mostly aimlessly, through the maze. It seemed as there was no way to figure out where to go! Futilely, she glanced at the map. She noticed that a section of the map that had once been white was now black. That was unusual. As Jess kept walking, she noticed that more and more of the map was turning black in exactly the path that she was walking.

Aha! Now Jess could trace her way over to… well, she didn't know where. This map was a great way to figure out where she was and the path she was on, and to trace it towards a dead end. Jess was able to trace it well enough to find a path; she assumed that where she needed to go was somewhere on that path.

Here was the issue. Jess could see what was on the paper. And she saw the walls. But her mind could not visualize what was on the paper in such a way that she could actually move the right way without looking at it. She knew that not every competition would be a problem for her because of her aphantasia, but this one was incredibly difficult. And she understood how this map would be helpful for the other competitors. It just… it just wasn't helping her.

Jess decided that the best thing to do would be to not look where she was going and just focus on the map itself. When she came to a junction, she could trace from there to figure out if it made sense to try to go that way or not. And she didn't have to worry about other people hurting her because these weren't the Games. So that was comforting.

Wandering through the maze, Jess suddenly spotted something in the distance. It looked like what she'd always assumed a launch tube would look like! Excitedly, Jess ran over to it; this had to be her tube! Unfortunately, it had a grey base and a grey rim around the top, a grey number nine on the door, and a light blue stripe about midway down the tube. This wasn't her tube; this was Aviel's tube! That was incredibly unfortunate.

Jess glanced at the map again and noticed something about where she was. There was a little gray line going through the line that indicated the wall, making a cross of some sort. As Jess scanned the map, she noticed other colored lines begin to show up. Of course the Gamemakers wouldn't put all of the tubes together. That would be too easy.

That must be the twist.

Jess noticed that the little lines on the map matched up, in color, to the competitors' colors. However, they didn't match in terms of shade; there were five different blue lines, all in the same shade of blue. It was at this moment that Jess was glad that she'd chosen yellow as her color. There were only two of those. Arbitrarily, Jess picked one to start with and traced her finger from where she was to where it was. She took a deep breath and began to move along the path. But, once she was about 30 steps away from the tubes, the lines vanished.

How in their right mind could the Gamemakers see this as the better of the two options?

Jess went back to Aviel's tube and traced the path she would need to take once more before boldly setting off on it. After a number of turns, she turned right and ran into a large figure in a gray uniform. It was none other than Aviel, looking more flustered than she'd ever seen him.

"Oh, Jess! Thank goodness, I found someone. Did you know that all the tubes are in different places?"

"I know! It's so annoying of the Gamemakers to do that. I've been trying to follow my watch but it's not helping."

"What do you mean follow your watch?"

"It's been turning green when I'm going in the right direction and red if I'm not. I just have a feeling it's misleading me. I don't even know," he exclaimed in exasperation. As what seemed to Jess like a last resort, he said, "Have you by any chance seen my tube?"

Jess had a few options. She could be honest. She could say that she didn't remember, because she honestly didn't. Or, she could decide to tell him the wrong way to throw him off.

"If you go to the end of the path and turn right, you're on the right track."

"Thanks!"

As she watched him run away, Jess knew that she was sending him in the opposite direction from where she came. But that was all strategy. She knew she was going to do poorly; her best bet to not come in last was to take someone else down with her.

* * *

 _Alexei Roth, 13  
District Three Male_

* * *

Alexei was as ready as he could ever be for this maze. As soon as the door unlocked, Alexei strode outside, maze in hand, ready to take on the challenge. Then he decided he should probably look at the map before he made any decisions.

Alexei first oriented the map according to where he stood. He decided that his best bet was to trace the longest continuous route that he could, and then try to follow it to the best of his ability. The maze was going to be a bit of a pain no matter what he did because it just seemed so big, so he figured this would be the best method to begin with, and if it didn't work, he could try something else out later on.

As he was studying the map, analyzing to try to find the longest path, he felt someone run into his back. "Sorry!" exclaimed the all-too familiar voice.

"Ramona?"

"Alexei!" The two embraced. "Thank goodness it's you. You're someone I can definitely work with to get through this maze."

"Do you have a plan?"

"Sort of. I was just trying to stick to sections of maze that were continuous. What about you?"

"I had no plan. So your method sounds good to me."

"Cool."

"What do you have as your advantage?"

"Just a map."

"Oh, same here. Are they the same?"

Ramona pulled out her map. "Does yours look like this?"

Alexei showed her his. The two studied them for a little while, until they lined up their black lines. "The problem is that you came towards me initially, it looks like. So our lines actually meet up right here. So whichever way we go, one of our lines is going to darken and the other will lighten, yeah?"

"Yeah. So why is that a big deal?"

"We can only use one map."

"That's not a problem. I don't think so, at least. At a certain point both maps will be darkening because we'll pass the launch point. I hope."

Ramona and Alexei spent some time poring over the map, using various makeshift measuring tools, including fingernails and a plucked piece of hair, to find the longest continuous section. "I think we have to go straight down this way, then to the left, then down this path here."

"No, we turn first to our right, then straight, and then go the other way."

As the two traced their paths on each other's maps, they felt the presence of another person behind them. "Hi," said a slightly timid voice.

"Hey, Morrel! How are you doing?" Ramona asked boisterously.

"I'm not sure. I have no concept of this maze."

"Do you have a map?" asked Alexei.

"No. Just this watch."

The old friends glanced at each other, then at the watch. "What does it do?" asked Ramona.

"It glows green when I move closer and red when I move farther away. The thing is that it took me some time to figure out that I had a help because I had the watch on when I launched, so I kind of assumed that I did so badly that I had no advantage. So now I think I'm totally on the wrong track."

"Why don't we all work together, then?" Alexei offered. "Ramona and I are playing around with this idea of following the longest continuous path. Does that sound like a good idea?"

"Sure, but I think that we should turn back if my watch doesn't go green."

"Fair."

The trio made their way through the maze, alternately checking one of the maps and Morrel's watch. They seemed to be moving in the right path. Suddenly, Morrel's watch sharply switched to red. "We've gotta be close!" Alexei exclaimed. "Look around and see if you can find a tube."

"Oh, here's mine," Morrel said. "White bottom and top with a green seven? Definitely mine."

"Let's look around this area for ours," suggested Ramona. "They've got to be around here somewhere. Morrel, stay here."

Ramona and Alexei scoured the area around Morrel's tube for their own tubes, but they had no luck. "You know what I bet happened?" Alexei suggested.

"What?" asked his two comrades.

"I think the Gamemakers put all of the tubes in different parts of the maze. "

Ramona exclaimed, "That's so annoying!"

"So my watch was only leading us to my tube," mused Morrel. "So it won't be of any help to you two now."

"Right. Go ahead and lock in your time. Ramona and I will figure this out."

"See you later, Morrel," grinned Ramona faintly. Morrel stepped into his tube and began to rise into the Arena proper.

"Now let's go find your tube," Alexei insisted

"What do you mean? Wouldn't it be better for both of us if we split up? Then we could both have better times."

"But it was my plan to work together that got you into this mess. I want to help you get out of it. We have the filling on the map to help us out as well."

"But…"

"Nope," Alexei replied firmly. "Let's get started."

* * *

 **Wow, this chapter has been a long time coming! I'm sorry it's taken so long; I have a very rigorous schedule this semester and the past few weeks have especially been bad. I also wanted to add in another section, but at this point, I just needed to get the chapter up. Anyway, what did you think of this challenge? What order do you think they finished in? What do you think of Alexei's decision to forego everything to help Ramona? Did Jess make an enemy out of Aviel?**

 **A few important things:**

 **1\. I'm still missing a bunch of check-ins. I got one on February 1 (which was like a month ago lol) that was blank, but from someone who apparently submitted a tribute, so if you sent that one in, please fix that.**

 **2\. I have a blog for this story now! It only serves as a repository for scoring information, but check out idide-scoring . blogspot . com for all of that information if you're curious. The post for this competition will hopefully be up today or tomorrow.**

 **3\. The titles of the chapters for the Events are all based on song titles. Can you guess the songs?**

 **If you have not sent me your competitor's puzzle score, which I am missing for Liana, Mallory, Myranda, and Nell, please send those to me or I'll have to make them up for the next chapter.**

 **Thank you all so much for your patience with this chapter. Hopefully, I'll see you much sooner next time!**

 **-goldie031**


	32. Knowledge is Power!

"How do our ratings look?" Ruby asked Violet as the two sat down to go over the first day of the Games?

"They're not bad," Violet answered. "But, our focus group mentioned that they'd like to see a bit more teamwork. They don't like that the competitions are so individual."

"But that's the whole point of the Events!" Ruby exclaimed. "At least in my eyes. I wanted to see everyone be in control of their own destinies."

"And I totally understand that as well. But that's just the feedback that I'm getting."

Ruby acknowledged that it would behoove her to listen to her audience. After all, the whole idea was for her to get them to like the Events more than the Games. But, she had inherited her grandfather's stubbornness, to say the least. She didn't particularly want to change her plans, especially not now, when the Events had been planned out already. She'd already flown by the skin of her teeth, planning days before, during the 100th Games. She couldn't afford, for her sanity, to do that again.

"We can't really deviate from what we already have planned," Ruby said.

"But we do have a few different plans for today's afternoon challenge. We could go with the seven-top instead of the one- or four-top."

"Do you really think it's worth it changing our plans this late in the game?"

"I think it's at least worth a shot. We can't know if team competitions work better if we don't at least take a stab at it."

Ruby sighed. Potentially against her better judgement, she replied, "Fine. Tell your team to prepare for the seven-top instead of the one-top tonight."

"Will do, Madam President."

"Oh, one more thing, Violet. Did the books get planted?"

"Yes. They were all set in the houses before the competitors launched."

"Wonderful."

* * *

 _Chloe Antoni, 12  
District Two "Male"_

* * *

"How was your first day of competition?" Chloe asked Winslet as the two sat down to breakfast. They had slept in their own houses, but as they were allowed to eat meals with their friends, they'd arranged the night before to eat breakfast together.

"It was good. I didn't have a ton of trouble with the afternoon challenge, but the morning challenge was tougher."

"Yeah, that one was a lot more difficult. What was your advantage for the AM?"

"I had a map. You?"

"Yeah, I also had the map."

"Did you find it helpful?"

"I mean, it was better than nothing. But it wasn't exceptionally helpful because it didn't tell us where I was trying to get to."

"Yeah."

An awkward silence fell over the two of them. Chloe wanted to say more, but she really didn't know what to say, or how to break the ice. This was the first time that Chloe had truly interacted with Wins as Winslet rather than as Winsley. Wins had told Chloe that she could still call her Winsley because it was a fairly gender-neutral name, but Chloe knew how hard it could be to be gender-fluid. So anything that Chloe could do to make her friend feel more comfortable, Chloe would do.

"Wanna go see what other people are up to?" Wins asked, breaking Chloe out of her thoughts.

"Sure. Where do you wanna go first?"

"Let's go say hi to Ramona and Alexei, maybe. They're cute together."

"Sure!"

Just as the pair were about to leave, Violet's voice echoed through the Arena. "Good morning, competitors! I hope you had a restful night and are ready for another day of competition. If you have not already done so, please put on your assigned outfits for the day and make your way to Competition Zone 1, which is due north of your common courtyard."

"Ooh, I have to go change," Wins said, darting into her bedroom.

"Did they give you two different outfit options?"

"Well, I have the option of skirt or pants. Just one blazer, dress shirt, and tie, though."

"What district do you think we're doing today?"

"I don't know." Winsley emerged wearing a black pleated skirt, a pink gold blazer, and a matching pink gold tie. On his left side was the seal of District One, embroidered on in silver.

"Interesting that you chose the skirt."

"I was just… kind of drawn to it today, even though I can wear the pants."

Chloe picked up her blazer from the back of her chair and put it on. Then, the two put their dishes in the sink in Wins's tiny kitchen and made their way to the competition zone. When they got there, they found a large circle partitioned into 28 sections by giant walls. Scoping out the area, it became clear which section was for which competitor, because its walls were painted in the competitor's color with their district number in the appropriate color. Chloe noticed that her section was painted entirely with bright red; just the black outline of a two stood out. Looking down at her chest, she got the same feeling from her blazer; the embroidered Two symbol barely stood out against her red blazer. Maybe choosing red for both colors wasn't the best idea. It didn't give off the best vibes of her as a person, especially coming from a Career district. That might explain why she hadn't had much luck befriending some of the other younger competitors.

At least Wins didn't seem to mind her color choice. And that was extremely comforting to Chloe.

"What district do you think we're doing today?" Wins asked.

"I'm not sure. It could be One. They always seem super put-together."

At that moment, a school bell rang loudly across the competition area. "I guess we should go sit. Good luck, Chloe."

"You two, Wins." The two gave each other a slightly awkward hug before retreating to their sections.

In Chloe's section was a sleek silver stool with a screen on a pedestal in front of it. When she sat down, she noticed that she could swivel her chair around to face away from the screen, allowing her to see some of the other competitors. Chloe could clearly see the person directly across from her, Aelyx, as well as two people to his left and two to his right. While she couldn't clearly see the people further to the left and to the right, she was able to figure out who was sitting there based on the color of the walls. Chloe figured that she wouldn't be able to turn around if there was no reason for her to be turned around. So why that was would have to wait and see.

Chloe watched from her seat as the other competitors took theirs. After a few moments, Violet began.

"Hello, competitors! Welcome to our second day of competition. Today, we are going to be traveling to our district responsible for universities and higher education, District Six! Now, we could have chosen to focus on transportation, Six's former industry, but this district gives us a great opportunity to test your knowledge and logic in a way that would be much more forced with any other district. So, this morning is for the knowledge test and this afternoon will be the logic test.

"Today's challenge will test your knowledge of things, some that all of you should know, some that some of you may know, and some that none of you could know. Here's how it will work:

"Over the course of the next hour or so, you will be asked a number of questions. Some will be multiple choice, and some will require you to input a number or a word into your keypad. All of you will be asked the same questions at the same time, and you will be given points based on correctness, then based on how quickly you answer the questions. In the case of the input questions, points will be given based on how close you are to the correct answer.

"Now, each question is timed; you will have a maximum of twenty seconds to answer a question if you are given four options, and 30 seconds for the questions for which you have to input an answer. You will also not be informed immediately if you've gotten your answer correctly; rather, after every ten questions, you will be notified of how many you got right.

"Then, there are the challenge questions. You will each have two challenge questions, randomly dispersed over the course of the game. For each question, you will choose a different competitor, as well as a wager of points. Whoever gets the question right, or if you both get it right, whoever gets it faster, gets to steal that number of points from their competitor. If neither competitor gets the question right, you both lose the points.

"Are there any questions?"

The voice of a younger kid called out, "Will everyone answer every question?"

"No. There are some questions everyone will answer, but some of them will only be answered by some of you. Everyone will have the opportunity to answer the same number of standard questions, but some of you may be challenged multiple times. Anything else?

"Good. Please keep an eye on the screens for your first question."

Chloe was only twelve. And she hadn't spent a ton of time in school. This was not going to be her challenge.

* * *

 _Nell Edwards, 14  
District Six Female_

* * *

This was totally going to be Nell's challenge.

Nell had grown up surrounded by education and higher learning. When the redistricting first happened at age 8, and information had begun to flow into Six, Nell had eaten it all up. And now she was competing in a knowledge-based challenge? This was Nell's competition to lose. Twirling a lock of her wavy blonde hair, Nell waited patiently for the first question to appear.

"The first set of 10 questions will be answered by everyone. All of the questions are about the statistics of our great country," said an automated voice. "Please look at your screen now."

The first question asked which district was the biggest by area. Nell had definitely learned this before, but couldn't remember the answer off the top of her head. She knew that Nine was the longest district, but it was slightly narrower than Thirteen. Tentatively, Nell decided to go with Nine and hope for the best.

After a few moments, the second question popped up, asking what the smallest district was by area. The answer to this question hinged upon whether the Capitol was considered a district. As it was an option, Nell decided to go with that one.

Then came the population questions: smallest, most improved since the Redistricting, and biggest. She knew that Six's population was the smallest because it didn't have a ton of permanent residents and that Twelve's was most improved thanks to the new lack of mines. Biggest… well, that had to be Two. They pumped out kids and shoved them into Academies with the hope of getting Victors.

Now came geography. Most of them were pretty easy: Ten was obviously the southernmost district, Four the furthest west, and Thirteen reached the furthest east. But then came the kicker question: the northernmost district. As far as Nell knew, there was none. Seven, Nine, Six, and Thirteen all hit the northernmost border of Panem. So, she decided to go with Seven, because it was the only one that she hadn't chosen yet.

The last question in the category was one where she was not given any options: the total area, in millions of square miles, of Panem. This was a crazy question for anyone to try to answer. But, Nell knew one thing that most of her competition did not: ancient geography. She'd taken it as an elective a few years back. Nell remembered that the area of ancient America was about 3.8 million square miles, and that the area of ancient Mexico was about 760,000 square miles. Panem did encompass a little bit of Canada, but it also cut off parts of the US and Mexico, so adding them together was a good estimate. Nell put in 4.56 million miles and hit submit.

As she waited for her score to pop up, Nell felt pretty good. None of the multiple-choice questions were crazy difficult if you payed attention in your Panem classes. She had a feeling that the Gamemakers were starting easy with them, but at least it was good for her to get off on the right foot.

After a moment, Nell got her score: nine out of ten! That was pretty darn good. She wasn't sure which one she got wrong, though; that was the slightly annoying part of this challenge.

"Our next set of questions will be about ancient sports."

Nell did not know a lot about ancient sports.

* * *

 _Sinsya Powers, 14  
District Three Female_

* * *

Sinsya was lucky that she had spotted the trivia book sitting on her bed in her house the night before. She was sure that it didn't have every answer that she needed, but it would certainly help her with the random trivia questions that were popping up as the competition went on. That, combined with her natural intelligence, was helping her do quite well in this competition. She was thrilled.

"Competitors, you may now have a five-minute break between rounds."

Sinsya had lost track of the number of rounds she'd gone through. Clearly, if the Capitol was giving them a break, someone really needed it. As Sinsya swiveled her chair around, she noticed a bolt of bright yellow streak around the area.

Oh, Alder. It made sense that he would need a break.

Sinsya stood up and reached up her arms, then flopped over and touched her toes. That was a good stretch. Then, she headed out into the main area, where she caught a bit of Alexei and Ramona's conversation.

"How have you been doing?" Alexei asked.

"In general? Or…"

"In the challenge. Like, how have you been scoring?"

"Fine. I've gotten a few of the rounds all right. You?"

"Much less well," lamented Alexei. "I expected it to be more of the smart-person stuff, but its such random trivia that I really don't know any of it."

"Ah, see, that's why you should have looked at the trivia book that was in your house last night."

"Yeah, whatever."

Suddenly, Sinsya had an idea. It wasn't the nicest idea, and it was a bit risky to try to propose this to someone as smart as her, but it was at least worth a shot, and could really help her progress in the Games – er, Events. "Alexei, can I talk to you for a minute in private?"

"Yeah, sure." The two migrated into her section.

"I have an idea for you. Throw me the competition."

"What?"

"Throw me the competition. Whoever of us gets the next challenge has to challenge the other and risk all of their points. If you don't answer, all of the points will go to me."

"So what does that do?"

"If you're really doing as badly as you say, I become Three's best chance to get a really good score here. The points matter so much at this point in the Events, so any extra points Three can get will really help our chances of getting a Victor."

"But what if zero is the right answer?"

"I've already done a challenge," Sinsya said. "It'll tell you if you won or lost it. So if the wrong person wins, then when the next of us gets a challenge, we'll go again. Until you lose or we're out of challenges."

Sinsya watched as Alexei processed her proposal. She knew this wasn't the most ethical thing to do; she should be encouraging him to keep trying and do better. But something about Alexei's manner indicated to Sinsya that he was desperate to do something right. And as long as she could convince him that this was the right thing to do, she would benefit greatly. Then, once she got a comfortable point cushion, she could start helping him a bit more. But it would at least secure her spot in the rankings.

"Hurry up. We don't have much time. If you help me here, I'll help you out on a more team-based challenge later on."

Alexei's eyebrows raised. "Promise?"

"I don't know what there will be, so I can't promise. But I will try."

"Sure. I'll do it."

* * *

 _Aviel Nitsa, 16  
District Nine Male_

* * *

After the break, Aviel returned to his section and took his seat on the stool. He was honestly pretty frustrated with how he'd been doing so far; it wasn't horrendous, admittedly, but it also wasn't great. And he hadn't done too well on the challenges the day before. This was all incredibly frustrating for him. Aviel was not used to not having success. Granted, he hadn't obtained it by the most honest means back home, but now that he didn't have access to those dishonest means, he was getting annoyed. He needed to figure out either how to find success naturally, or cheat.

Aviel was predisposed to the second option.

The challenge began again, with a round of questions pertaining to fine art. This was definitely not the round for Aviel, or really anyone from anywhere other than the Capitol or its lapdog districts. He decided, while he was waiting for the round to be over, to turn around and see if he could see what some of the other people across from him were doing.

Directly across from Aviel was his district partner, Liana. To her right was Alexei from Three, who was looking increasingly anxious. He was checking his podium, then looking at the person directly across from him, then checking his podium, then looking across from him again. Something did not seem right to him.

But who was across from Alexei?

Now was the time to use some deductive reasoning. Completely abandoning his podium, Aviel carefully moved forward towards the center, allowing himself to see more of the competitors' sections. Eventually, after moving around a whole bunch, he figured out that district partners were seated directly across from each other. So if Alexei was to Liana's right, then to his right had to be… what was her name… Serenity? No. Sawyer? No. Sinsya. That was it.

The first question was whether or not Alexei checking in with Sinsya so much was weird. Liana wasn't checking in with Aviel, after all. But the two of them weren't particularly close during the pre-Games. Aviel remembered that Sinsya and Alexei were from different parts of the same program in Three. Maybe they were talking, or as much as they could talk from across a giant circle, because they were close.

But then why would Alexei look so nervous? Alexei was a bright kid; this should be his challenge. But maybe he didn't know a ton of trivia? That seemed like a reasonable assumption; he seemed like a book-smart kid, and there weren't a ton of those kinds of questions thus far. But he wouldn't be deliberately looking at Sinsya in that case. There had to be something bigger at stake here.

Aviel was intelligent enough to register that it would not be a good idea to walk over and ask him now. He decided to refocus his energy on the questions posed to him and figure this out after the challenge. And that turned out to be the right call; Aviel suddenly went on a streak of getting nearly every question right, significantly boosting his point total. He even won a challenge! But as focused as he was trying to be, he couldn't shake the question of what was happening with the pair from Three. Aviel couldn't understand why it was interesting him so much.

Maybe because they could be getting in his way. If there was something going on between Sinsya and Alexei, those two could do so much to prevent him from winning by the sheer fact that they were both smart and clever. They were mastering the Events and it was only the second day!

Aviel had to get onto their level somehow. He needed to do something to up his chances. And if he couldn't cheat to make himself do better, maybe his strategy had to be to bring other people down with him.

* * *

 **Here we have another chapter! What did you think of the challenge? Did Sinsya's plan work? What is Aviel going to do next? Have you figured out the songs matching with the chapter titles yet?**

 **Also, what did you think of the format of this chapter, with the challenge serving as a backdrop for plot development? I'm still working on figuring out exactly what the style of this story is and what the balance between competitions and plot should be, so just bear with me as I feel this out.**

 **Another question! One of the other writers on this site has a discord server for their storyverse. Would you guys be interested in an IDIDE/EmeraldVerse discord server to talk about the story?**

 **Make sure to check the blog for how this competition stacked up! I'll see you all soon for the PM challenge, which will have a very different format.**

 **-goldie031**


	33. Can We Escape?

_Sawyer Burns, 18  
District Seven Female_

* * *

At lunchtime, Sawyer elected to eat outside, on a picnic blanket underneath a tree in the courtyard. She enjoyed the social nature of the Events, but sometimes she just needed a break. And she was certainly content to take a break here, under the trees, in the peacefulness of nature. Trees called to Sawyer, as they did to any other girl from Seven, so she was thrilled that the Gamemakers had designed this area as a courtyard surrounded by trees. She'd even found a beautiful grassy meadow the other day, and would have loved to eat there today, but the competitors had very specifically been instructed not to leave the courtyard. So this tree would have to do.

What impressed Sawyer the most about the Arena was that, despite it being clearly winter in Panem, here it was a gorgeous springtime. How the Gamemakesr could make such a wonderful, natural environment was lost on her, but she certainly wasn't complaining. Winter would always hold a special place in her heart because she was engaged in the winter, and because the trees were gorgeous when snow-covered, but spring was still her favorite season. Unless you counted fall, with all of the bright colors…

"Sawyer?" said a young voice, startling her out of her thoughts. Sawyer looked up to find the competitor from 1 standing over her… what was their name?

"Yes?"

"Hi. Can I ask you a question about something?" The poor kid looked very uncomfortable to be approaching Sawyer. The older girl wasn't great at working with kids, but she needed to try her best here.

"Yes, of course! Just remind me your name."

"Wins."

"Hi, Wins. What's up?"

Wins took a seat carefully next to Sawyer, curling their legs to the side. "What does it mean to be in love?"

That question took Sawyer aback a little. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, I think I might love somebody but I don't know. I'm very confused. And because you are in a relationship, I thought you could help me understand what I'm feeling."

That was a lot of pressure to put on Sawyer, especially because it wasn't something that she could necessarily explain. It wasn't like she knew instantly that she was in love with her fiancé. It had taken her quite a while, actually, to fully fall in love with Michael and to know that he was The One. How could she answer that question for the younger kid?

"That's a hard question for me to answer, Wins. Because it's really different for every person. Love isn't an emotion that is easy to understand, like happiness or sadness. It can be hard to tell some times."

"Is it special or different? Or maybe both?"

"Well, it definitely feels different. It's not happiness. It's not sadness. You know what those are."

"Yeah."

"Sometimes love feels like a lot of happiness. Sometimes it's a softer, more dull feeling. Why, who do you love?"

"I don't know if I love her. But when I'm with Chloe, something feels so different. Like I have a completely different relationship with her than I ever have with anyone."

Sawyer was desperately trying to figure out how to help this kid. "Is that a problem?"

"No. But I don't love not knowing what it is."

"But that's OK, Wins. You have so much time to figure it out."

"But not really. She lives in Two and I live in One."

"Right now we're so concentrated, Wins, that things will escalated quicker than you think. You know, to be honest, I don't know if I'm the most helpful person because I'm from an outer district. Have you talked to Amazon?"

"Why Amazon?"

"She's from Two originally, and she might be able to give you some advice. She does also happen to be married. Plus, you could play with the baby!"

"That's a good idea. Thanks, Sawyer!" Looking at least a little bit more optimistic, Wins scampered off.

Sawyer felt bad that she couldn't help the younger boy. There was a part of her that wanted to, but she knew that she really wasn't the right person for the job. He needed someone who really understood love. And Amazon had that trait in the bag.

As Sawyer turned back to her lunch, she heard some more footsteps coming towards her. She looked up and found Alexei coming towards her. "Hey, Sawyer? Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, Alexei. What's up?"

At least he was an outer district tribute. Maybe she could help him more.

* * *

 _Ventus Gorva, 18  
District Six Male_

* * *

Ventus sat, finishing up his lunch. Even after coming out with what happened at home, the other competitors hadn't really taken pity on him and started talking to him. Granted, there hadn't really been an opportunity for them to interact; he'd spent all of yesterday alone, electing not to leave his house after he finished the challenge. Maybe he could have, but he just didn't have the motivation to do so. And then, after the morning challenge, he'd gone back home as well.

Maybe the other competitors couldn't really be blamed for his inability to make friends. He wasn't putting a ton of effort into it either.

"Competitors!" called Violet. "We're about to move into the second competition of the day. If you have changed out of your competition outfit, please put it back on. For this competition, you have each been assigned to a different competition zone. Please listen for your assignment at this time:

"Going to Competition Zone 1, due north, are Luna, Serenity, Amazon, Aelyx, Solomon, Lyric, and Sinsya. Going to Zone 2, due east, are Liana, Silas, Ramona, Nell, Alder, Henley, and Rochas. Going to Zone 3, due south, are Sharen, Sawyer, Morrel, Myranda, Winsley, Mallory, and Alexei. Everyone else, which should be Sage, Aviel, Chloe, Kitt, Jessamine, Crixus, and Ventus, is going to Zone 4, which is due west. If anyone did not hear their name, please let me know. Please make your way there now."

Ventus took a deep breath, cleaned up some of his meal, and made his way west towards the competition zone. When he got there, he noticed that there was a large white box in the center, big enough to hold a number of rooms. Eventually, the other competitors arrived, and they stood around mostly awkwardly (except Chloe and Jess) until they heard Violet's voice again.

"District Six is certainly known for having many intelligent students there. But intelligence is not all about knowing things. It's also about being able to use logic and to solve puzzles. And that's exactly what we're going to do today.

"You have been divided into four teams of seven. Each team will be racing to escape the white box in front of you. In order to do so, you will need to solve a number of different kinds of puzzles, each of which will give you a letter that will eventually spell out the phrase that will let you out. For each puzzle that you solve yourself, you will get a full point, and for each that you work on with another person, you get half a point. Your placement will first be determined by your group and then by your individual puzzle score. So if your group finishes second, and you complete the third most puzzles, you will place tenth.

"Even if you don't completely understand the points system, are there any questions about the challenge itself?

"Great. Please step into the box. Your time will begin when the door closes. Good luck!"

Ventus and his teammates approached the door. Gentlemanly, Crixus opened the door for his team, allowing them to enter the box. Then, the boy from ten gingerly shut the door.

The seven teammates stood around awkwardly for a moment until Kitt decided to get the ball rolling. "How about we all split up and find a puzzle that we think will do well at? Then we can rotate through them and do the letters together at the end."

"Sounds good to me!" said Chloe, who darted off to look for a puzzle.

Ventus scanned the room, trying to pick a puzzle to do. Unfortunately, he missed one little detail of the room: the glint in Aviel's eye when he noticed that Sage and Ventus were both in the same room.

* * *

 _Solomon "Sol" Mikkelson, 18  
District Four Male_

* * *

As Sol entered the room, he quickly analyzed the members of his team. It became clear to him that what would be needed most of all was someone who could take charge of the team. Amazon, Lyric, and Sinsya were too quiet, Serenity was less than useful, and Luna didn't come across as a leader, more a teammate. So it came down to Sol and Aelyx. And there was something about Aelyx that Sol very strongly distrusted, meaning that Sol needed to be in the lead.

"All right, guys. Let's come up with a strategy before we get going here. Does anyone have a specific kind of puzzle they think they'll be good at?"

"I tend to do well with math problems," Sinsya volunteered.

"That's a good start. Aelyx, I bet you do well with physical things?"

"Sure," volunteered Aelyx.

"Great. So here's what I'm going to suggest. We're all going to do better if at least some of us work together, even if we don't get all of the points. So Aelyx and I will do some of the bigger physical puzzles, Sinsya will focus on the math ones, and then Lyric and Luna will pair up and Amazon and Serenity will pair up to try to handle some of the others. Sound like a plan?" Everyone nodded. "Great. If you need help, call for someone. Let's do this!"

The group scattered around the room, Sol surveying his work. He knew that pairing Amazon and Serenity was risky, but at the very least, it put two people who would definitely work on the puzzles in the same group, and the two people he trusted the least together. So he figured they had a shot to not place fourth as a group. At least, he hoped.

Sol wandered around the room, looking for a puzzle that he'd be good at. While he said that he'd be working on the physical puzzles, he suddenly spotted something that caught his eye: a color puzzle.

Before Owen died, Sol had done a lot of painting; in fact, he had first met Owen when Owen's parents commissioned Sol to paint a portrait of their son. That portrait had taken Sol a very long time; he needed it to be _perfect_ for the boy he fell in love with. After Owen volunteered, it had been very hard for Sol to get back into painting. Once he was finally able to, the paintings all centered around Owen's favorite things.

Sol snapped out of his thoughts. That wasn't the point. The point was that he was really good at identifying colors. So seeing this puzzle was a breath of fresh air. He knew he could easily beat it.

The question was whether or not he should.

See, Sol didn't want the rest of his team to feel that he was overtaking them. It was not the job of a leader to do everything, nor was it to do nothing; there needed to be an in between. And if Sol took over a challenge that another group could do, that wasn't the best way to lead them. But on the other hand, if Sol didn't take on the challenge and nobody did, it would be setting the group back. There was so much ground to cover in this room and so many challenges. It was probably best for the team if he took it on.

The challenge was fairly simple: Sol would be shown a series of colors. Then, he would have to choose the colors from a larger group shown on the screen. Once he got a difficult enough puzzle right, he would get a letter for the final puzzle

Round one was easy. First, the screen flashed red, green, black, then orange. Then, he was shown the eight colors of a crayon box, and he had to pick the right ones. This round was easy, at least. As the game progressed, however, the colors got more and more similar to each other. As an artist from Four, Sol knew that blues were really hard to tell apart; there were seemingly way more shades of green and blue than there were of any other color. So, naturally, the Gamemakers had focused on shades of green and blue. As the levels progressed, the shades got closer and closer, and the number of colors Sol had to pick out decreased. This made things quite difficult.

On his first go, Sol got up to level four and missed. The second time around, he made it to level five. The third time, he messed up on four again. And the fourth, he only made it to three.

Finally, on the fifth try, he made it all the way to the last level. And who'd've thunk?

The only color that flashed on the screen that he had to identify from the larger group of colors was shamrock green.

* * *

 _Ramona Wayland, 13  
District Ten Female_

* * *

By all accounts, Ramona's team should have been done by now. She and Nell were both pretty intelligent people, who were able to race through the mental puzzles, and they had Silas for the physical stuff. Henley was also pretty clever in her own right, and Liana was essentially Capitol-educated. So that was five strong assets. Naturally, Alder wasn't going to be much help; that kid was a walking shaken can of soda. And it made sense that Rochas would be not helpful for the sake of sticking it to the Capitol.

But something told Ramona that Rochas was just not helping. And that something was the fact that Henley had not left Rochas's side since they entered the room.

There were a few other tributes that were joined at the hip. ChloWins, for example. Those two were almost always together. And it was absolutely adorable. Despite the fact that they were basically the same age as Ramona, she still rooted for them as a couple as if they were little kids. The other big one was Henley and Rochas. That relationship wasn't nearly as clear, and Ramona wasn't even sure if Rochas noticed it. But during training and the interviews, Henley's eyes rarely focused on anyone else. And now, despite her clearly superior skill set, she was almost glued to Rochas, insisting on working on every puzzle with him.

It was almost as if it was her job to watch him…

"We're almost done," Nell smiled, taking a seat next to Ramona. "Now, all we have to do is wait for Henley and Rochas to finish that puzzle, and we can get started on the sentence that will get us out of here."

"I don't understand why the two of them are working together. Henley is so much smarter than Rochas is, and I thought Rochas just didn't care."

"Rochas did one puzzle earlier by himself, actually! I was very impressed that he even did one. I think he's been working on this puzzle since."

The two of them fell silent. Then Ramona remembered: Nell was the journalist. If anyone knew the answer to why Rochas was doing what he was doing – or why Henley was doing what she was doing, for that matter – it was her.

Now to coax it out of her.

"Do you have any idea why Rochas is doing what he's doing?"

"Not any more than you do. He's approximately the flattest person that I've ever met."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know anything about him other than the fact that he's an eco-nut?"

"No."

"Exactly. Rochas comes across as completely one-dimensional. Now, he may not be in reality. But I can't even weasel anything else out of him. The only thing he talks about to anyone is the environment. So it's hard to find his rationale."

Rowena took the next step. "So why would Henley be following him around?"

"What do you mean?" Nell played dumb.

"Come on, you're a journalist. You can't tell me you didn't notice that Henley spent literally the _entire_ pre-Events watching Rochas. The only reason someone would do that is if they loved each other, or if one was supposed to watch the other."

Ramona could tell that she'd gotten Nell, as the girl was taking a little longer to respond. But the girl from Six responded with, "Maybe she's interested in him romantically."

"Why? You just said he's incredibly one-dimensional."

"Hey, she could have an interest in the environment too. Have you spent time talking to her?"

"Not really."

"So then how could you know?"

Ramona had a feeling that Nell wasn't being entirely forward with her. It actually made her more suspicious of Henley that Nell was being dodgy. It wasn't like being a spy was a bad thing; more so, it was pretty admirable. Ramona was just curious. But pushing things more now was probably not the best thing to do.

"You're right, I don't."

"So? Maybe ask her yourself. Now, on that same note, tell me about your boyfriend."

"My boyfriend?" Ramona was shocked.

"Come on. You can't tell me you haven't noticed that you're spending almost all of your time with Alexei. He can't stop looking at you!"

* * *

 **Hello friends! It is I with another chapter! This chapter leans heavily towards plot, but what did you think about the little bits of the competition that you saw? What do you think will be the aftermath of the chapter? Will we see some cinnamon roll couples? Will Ventus make friends?**

 **Bonus questions: Did anyone figure out any of the songs from which the chapter titles are taken? Also, has anyone noticed a pattern with the points of view?**

 **I'm still trying to figure out exactly the structure of the blog post for this chapter, so it won't be up immediately, and once I get it up it may not have anybody's actual placement. So that will hopefully be up soon, but I might skip this chapter because the format is a little unusual.**

 **A major announcement: I now have a discord server! If you are interested in joining me, send me a PM for the link.**

 **I think that's all I've got for now. I'll see you, hopefully much sooner, for the next challenge!**

 **-goldie031**


	34. Turn It, Leave It, Stop, Format It

_Luna Powell, 18  
District Five Female_

* * *

"How's it going, Kitt?" Luna asked the Ten boy as the competitors milled around the courtyard after breakfast.

"It's going well, thanks. I feel like I haven't seen you at all these Games!"

"I know! Things have just been crazy thus far."

"How have you been feeling about the competitions?"

"Fine," Kitt shrugged. "I don't think I've been doing phenomenally well, but I doubt I've done poorly. You?"

"I don't know," Luna shrugged. "I feel pretty good. I just wish we knew our standings."

"Is it a for sure thing that we'll never be told where we place?"

Luna thought. "I don't remember. Maybe they said something about in that meeting we had after the chariot rides?"

"Maybe."

The two fell silent again.

Luna sized up the Ten boy. She was quite impressed with his tenacity, all things considered. Kitt had had no luck in finding a female significant other, and nobody was really interested in being that for him, but he still kept trying. And she hadn't thought that she and her crew of girls were giving off such strong "we want to date you" vibes that would make him so attached to them. There hadn't been a moment thus far at which he had not been attached to some female competitor, and while nobody had hit him like Sharen did, he was getting on some girls' nerves.

"What's your call for today?" asked Luna.

"As in what district?"

"Yeah."

"I dunno. Our outfits are pretty similar to yesterday's except that your outfit is more professional and less schoolgirl, if you know what I mean."

Luna looked down at her bright pink dress shirt and orange slacks. Apart from the fact that she had chosen the most hideous color combination possible, she could understand how this would seem professional for Nell, or really anyone who had chosen a better combination of colors than she had. Even Kitt's pink dress shirt and green slacks looked a little better. She made a mental note to advise anyone who came after her to choose their color carefully; that being said, the fact that Five's district color was orange didn't bode well for finding something that worked OK with it.

"I also don't understand why we were all provided these square glasses," Kitt piped up again. "They make us look kinda nerdy."

"Yeah, I know. I'm sure it'll all become clear in a moment."

"Good morning, competitors!" called Violet. "We are about to begin today's morning competition. Please make your way to Competition Zone 4 for the challenge today. Note that you may not be in the same seat as you were yesterday morning."

"Can I walk you over?" Kitt asked chivalrously. "I was in Zone 4 yesterday afternoon, after all."

"We can walk over together, thank you." Confidently, Luna strode towards the competition zone, leaving Kitt rushing after her. When she got to the zone, she found, to her chagrin, that she had been placed across from Kitt for the challenge. Well, chagrin was the wrong word. Kitt would probably be distracted because he was across from her, which only meant that there was one less obstacle in her way to winning.

Looking down at her table, Luna had a feeling that this would be a challenging competition because of the sheer number of nuts and bolts and wires and whatnot strewn all over her table. Clearly, she was expected to do something with technology. What district could that possibly be?

"Good morning, competitors, and welcome to District Three! Three's primary industry is electronics and technology, producing all of the devices that help our students learn in revolutionary ways, make our censuses much more effective, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't quite tell you what it is! But let me tell you, it's really cool.

"One of the most popular products coming out of Three right now is a geocaching device. Geocaching is kind of like a big treasure hunt where you put a sensor in a container and hide it in a little hole underground, or in a grate, or something like that. I don't have time to do it," admitted Violet, "but I've heard cool things about it. Then, you record where you put it in your geocacher. You can then use your device to find other people's geocaches. This geocaching trend has taken off so quickly in the past few months that we need your help to put together some geocachers to sell! You each have all of the parts you need to complete the challenge, plus a manual to help you out. The challenge will begin with the sound of the bell."

Luna wasn't amazing with technology, but she had worked in a power plant before, where a device similar to a geocacher was used to check on the status of the various generators. So while she'd never put together a geocacher, this didn't seem that it would be that different, so she'd at least have an idea of what connected to what.

But this was certainly going to be a tough challenge for some of the competitors.

* * *

 _Alexei Roth, 13  
District Three Male_

* * *

As Alexei made his way towards the competition zone, he found himself deep in thought about how he'd performed in the Events thus far. He knew that his placement in the District Thirteen afternoon challenge hadn't been great, but he had a good feeling about the previous day's afternoon challenge. But the trivia challenge…

Alexei still couldn't decide whether his decision to yield to Sinsya was the right call. She was right that the odds of Three winning the challenge were better if one of them threw it to the other. But why hadn't he argued a bit more about throwing it to him? For all he knew, she could have done horrendously in the previous challenges, in which case doing well in that one wouldn't necessarily do anyone any good.

This was all really hard to figure out. Alexei figured that was the Capitol's intention; after all, it would probably not make for the best TV if the tributes all knew exactly how they were doing all the time. But at least this early on, when there were still so many points to be gained, it would make Alexei feel a lot better.

Alexei snapped himself out of his thoughts. He needed to focus on this challenge. This was his to win! As a computer science major, while he didn't physically build things as much, he still had to know how things connected to each other so that he could fix it if something went wrong.

When he got to the competition zone, Alexei noticed that someone was already in his seat. "Aviel, I think you're in the wrong place."

Aviel jerked his head up. "Oh, oops! I just automatically went to my seat from last time. My bad."

Alexei was pretty sure that Violet had explicitly said that the seats would be different this time around. He figured that Aviel had just forgotten, and so decided not to think anything of it at this moment, instead taking his seat.

When he heard the instructions for the challenge, Alexei instantly had a feeling that there was something deeper going on. He knew from living in Three that it did take a while to make some of the smaller devices, like these geocachers. Because machines were not trusted enough to be delicate with all of the wires and such, human beings had to do it themselves, which increased the time it took to manufacture everything. If a product became incredibly popular, students in his program who were on scholarship or had financial aid were often called upon to help with assembling the products. As Alexei had not been asked to help with the geocachers before he left, he could only assume that there was some other reason why this in particular was the morning challenge, especially because a lot of the casing pieces were in his specific shade of orange. Unless it was so recent of a trend that it had only sprouted up after he left. That was certainly possible.

The bell rang indicating the start of the challenge. Alexei began to put together the geocacher mostly by instinct; he'd taken a hardware class or two since he got to school in Three, so some of this was just basic circuitry knowledge that he'd obtained. For the most part, it seemed to be working well. But, when he put it together and tried to turn it on, it didn't work.

That was weird.

Carefully, Alexei went through his manual to try to retrace his steps and see if he did right. He noticed that he had made a few mistakes, so he disassembled his geocacher and began to put it together again based on the manual's instructions. He was pleased to learn that his instincts had been correct up to the point where things stopped working.

But then, he came to a point where he was out of wires. And he still needed one wire. But no matter where he looked, he didn't see one.

Frustrated, Alexei decided to disassemble the geocacher again and see if he had gotten something caught somewhere. But when he took it apart and put it back together again, he found that nothing had changed. He was still missing a wire.

Alexei decided to keep on going, putting together the rest of the geocacher to see if there was a real need for the wire. But sure enough, when he finished putting things together and turned it on, it still didn't work.

Alexei placed the geocacher down and got out of his chair, scouring the ground around his chair to see if he'd dropped it. But he still couldn't find it.

Was it possible that he was missing a piece?

* * *

 _Silas Rune, 17  
Capitol "Male"_

* * *

This was not going to be Silas's challenge. But then again, had any of the challenges so far been Silas's challenge? Silas, a trained Career, had spent years working with long-range and short-range weapons, building their stamina and their muscle strength, learning fighting tactics, and just generally becoming the strongest physical competitor they could be. Yet, every single competition thus far had either required technology knowledge, intelligence, or luck, things that Silas didn't spend as much time training in back home. While it was still early in the Events, this was a huge advantage for the tributes who were more known for their intelligence. Sinsya was probably blowing the competition out of the water.

Then again, the districts that they'd covered so far were all fairly technical districts. It was natural that Six, being a district based around higher education, would have challenges centered around knowledge. And it made sense that Three would be technology things. Maybe the gun was overkill for Thirteen, but if that really was such an integral part of their basic training, that was OK with Silas. It was just annoying that it all happened consecutively. Hopefully, if they switched over to more physical challenges, they would start doing better.

Silas decided that their best strategy for finishing this challenge would be to work incredibly slowly, going through every step on the manual one by one and not trying to jump around. Even though some of the steps seemed intuitive, specifically with the casing, Silas preferred not to chance it, lest they accidentally mess something up and set themself further back.

The biggest challenge for Silas was handling the delicate pieces. Being a trained Career who had done a lot of work with weights and stuff over his life, they were probably strong enough to rip apart some of these wires if they pulled them too hard, or totally crush the screen that would go on the device eventually. Assembling electronics required much more delicate fingers than they had. They couldn't even put some of the pieces together because their fingers were so big.

What they really needed was a set of tweezers. That would be helpful.

Silas looked up for a moment to see his partner, Lyric, across the way. She didn't seem to be doing all that much better than they, which was interesting considering that the two were from two completely different backgrounds and had very different strengths. Silas expected her to be doing a bit better; she'd spent a lot of time working with instruments, after all, which did require delicate fingers, and didn't have nearly the training that Silas did, so she wasn't quite as strong. Now, Silas had never trained in Two, the district well-known for training ruthless beasts in the Games. But One was a close second, though its reputation frequently preceded it as a much more ditzy district than Two. Silas and their peers certainly did not have a well-rounded training experience; they could not think of a single person they knew who was trained in electronics like the Three tributes all seemed to be, even if they didn't have formal training.

"Shoot," Silas whispered. "What step am I on?" Silas skimmed the picture of the step that they thought they were up to, but one of the wires in the picture wasn't connected. Silas attempted to backtrack, but they couldn't figure out where they needed to backtrack _to_. Frustrated, Silas elected to disassemble the geocacher and totally reassemble it from the beginning, hopefully in a more focused way this time.

Silas could not comprehend how putting together what seemed like a simple geocacher could be this complex. They made it a little further each time, but they would consistently hit a point where something ceased to make sense: maybe they'd put a washer in wrong, or they'd been off by one link, or something. Either way, it was unbearably frustrating. And while Silas tried not to let their mind wander there, they kept blaming it on the way in which they'd been trained. Academies were meant to improve the chances of those competitors at winning the Games. How could Careers ever be expected to win in Arenas where brute strength was not the only factor? The 130th Games were in an Arena so based on technology that it was natural that the pair of techie tributes was able to win, and that the one from Three was the mastermind.

As Silas continued to mull over the concept of academies, they remembered that there were more Academies now than just in One and Two. They weren't used as much, but Ivey from 132 clearly proved that they had potential for success. They thought there was a trained tribute from Three in 134 who was good with electronics, too, and who only volunteered because he saw Ivey's success. But they, too, had their flaws. Not that it was possible to be a completely well-rounded competitor, as there was too much to learn for that to be possible, but Silas was learning what they had already suspected: that only knowing how to use weapons was a bad idea.

Something had to be done about the way that training was approached in the districts. Training was still important, as it created volunteers who were willing to enter the Games, saving the lives of other children who weren't. The question was whether there was a better way to do it, so that there were well-rounded people ready to enter the Events.

It suddenly occurred to Silas that they now had the platform to do just that.

* * *

 _Sage Davidson, 17  
District Eight Male_

* * *

Sage looked confusedly at the mass of parts sitting in front of him. After spending most of his life in Eleven, and then eventually moving to Eight, this was most likely not supposed to be his challenge. But there was something about the casing that looked incredibly familiar to him, though he could not put his finger on what. It was almost as if he was supposed to know how to put this thing together.

When the challenge started, Sage opened the manual for how to assemble this geocacher. He figured that the best course of action to take was to read through the manual to see all the steps, and then begin to put it together step by step. As he read through it, however, he was comforted by the fact that he really did seem to know this already! Every step made sense to him in his mind. He was easily able to understand the purpose of all of the different wires and nuts and bolts. It was almost as though he didn't need the manual.

Swiftly, Sage began to work through the assembly process of the geocacher. He was so consumed by putting together the geocacher that he didn't realize how strange it was that this boy who really hadn't lived in Eight for all that long was able to put together an object that was barely native to Eight. But there Sage was, ripping through this challenge. Before he knew it, or could think about what he was doing, Sage was done with assembling the geocacher. Carefully, Sage switched it on. To his delight, the screen flickered on, and a message appeared. "Congratulations on completing the challenge, Sage!" it read. "Please place the geocacher in the box under the table. You may leave through the door in the back of your section."

It was only when Sage returned to his house after the challenge that he realized the flaw in the way he'd approached the challenge. He was from Eleven, then Eight. Even a competitor who got incredibly lucky shouldn't have finished it as quickly as he did. The only way that someone from one of those places would know how to put that geocacher together would be entering into a Games with a technology-based Arena, like the 130th Games. He supposed that going to Three for school would be a way to learn how to put something like this together, but then those kids would represent Three like Alexei did, so that wouldn't help his case.

He could use the excuse to his spy group about having learned how to do it from one of their trainings. No, that wouldn't work. He couldn't tell the public that he was a spy because that would blow his cover as the true undercover agent here, and he couldn't tell his spy group an outright lie because they'd run all of his training. So that wouldn't work.

Did he even need to have an excuse? Sage reasoned that he could say that it was just a clever mind and pure luck. No, that wouldn't make sense either. Sage had done fairly poorly for the challenge where he had to put together a gun. But that was different, he reasoned. This had more parts and was more electronic. It kind of used a different part of the brain.

So then why would he logically do better here?

Sage thought back to some of the challenges he'd done the previous day. There were a couple in the escape room that had to do with this kind of technological assembly. Sage had looked at them a little bit, and even worked on one of them and solved it, but he didn't know if that was an approach he could take to solving this particular problem. His lie probably wouldn't be strong enough, not to mention that it would be incredibly difficult to gain knowledge of how to put something this complicated together from those two puzzles.

OK, so how could he get out of this one?

Suddenly, Sage had an idea. It wouldn't fly for the spy group, but it would get him out of any potential problems with the public. Sage could claim that the geocacher was similar to some tracking devices used in a warehouse he worked in in Eight to find particular packages. (He'd never actually worked in a warehouse, but he hadn't said that he didn't work in a warehouse in his interview.) So he was familiar with how it was supposed to look, and he'd fixed it a few times, so he knew the wiring. That knowledge, combined with the help from the manual, made it fairly easy for him. He knew that the spy group would know that this was a lie, so Sage would probably get in trouble internally, but at least it would save him from public scrutiny, if he were to face any of it.

Crisis averted.

* * *

 **So, what did you think about this chapter? Have you figured anything out about Sage yet? What happened to Alexei? Will Silas's plan work?**

 **A quick reminder that I have a discord server now! If you'd like to join, please send me a PM and I'll send you the link. The blog post will be up tomorrow at some point!**

 **Also, time for another check-in! If you have any questions about how to do that, feel free to shoot me a PM. The secret word for the check-in will be humor.**

 **I think that's all for this chapter. Feel free to shoot me a PM with any questions. I'm hoping to have the next chapter out a bit faster as my semester is basically done!**

 **-goldie031**


	35. Run, Baby, Run

_Sinsya Powers, 14  
District Three Female_

* * *

As far as she could tell, Sinsya was sitting pretty at this point in the Events. She had fooled Alexei into giving her a bunch of points, which certainly helped, and there hadn't been an overly challenging challenge for her thus far. Granted, she hadn't run into a Career district challenge yet, but with this many points at the beginning, she had a feeling that she'd end up doing fairly well in the Events overall.

"Competitors!" called Violet. "Please return to your houses, as this is where you will begin the next challenge. If you have not done so already, please change into the new outfit provided in your bedrooms. We will begin the challenge in approximately fifteen minutes."

Already in her home, Sinsya went into her bedroom to find a maroon athletic top and a pair of yellow leggings waiting for her. (Thank goodness she was not on her period.) This indicated very clearly that they'd be doing a more physical challenge, or at least something that wasn't doable in a dress shirt and slacks. But what could the challenge possibly be that was also related to District Three?

Rather than stress out about the challenge and what it could possibly be, Sinsya decided to pull out the Calculus textbook she'd requested from the Capitol to bring as a token and do some easy integral problems. Some people would have used the time between competitions to spend time with their friends. But Sinsya had always had a greater affinity for her studies. See, math was straightforward. People were not.

"Competitors!" called Violet again. "It's time to begin our afternoon challenge. As you may have guessed, this is a more physically-based challenge. Now, you may be asking yourselves, how can a physical challenge relate to the technology district? Well, allow me to tell you.

"This afternoon, you're going to be going on a scavenger hunt around the Arena looking for five plastic balls in your particular color. These balls can be found in a number of children's ball pits around the Arena. You will bring _one ball back at a time_ and put it in the little canister that you can find next to your back door on the outside of your house. I will repeat, you may only bring back one ball at a time.

"In order to find your balls in the various ball pits around the Arena, you'll be using your geocachers! Yes, the same ones that you built this morning. Some of you had your geocachers fixed if your screen was cracked or if it was not wired completely properly. The geocachers are automatically programmed to find the closest ball to your current position. However, if you would like to, you may use the arrows buttons on your keypad go for another of them if you'd like. When the geocacher realizes that one of your balls is right next to it, it will direct you back to your house, forcing you to bring the first ball back to your canister before it will turn on to help you find another one. Any questions? Just shout them out, I can hear you.

"If a ball that you must bring back is in a ball pit, there will be no other balls of your specific color to throw you off. Any others?

"Your geocachers will not tell you how far you are from the ball in question, but they will tell you what direction you need to move in. The faster it beeps, the closer you are to it. Also, it will not automatically shift between balls. It will start with the one closest to it, but it will stick with it unless that ball goes in the canister or you change it manually.

"Oh yeah, that would be a good thing to mention. Please exit through the back door of your house. You will find your geocacher on your right. If not, it's on your left. There are two spare sets of batteries in there as well, just in case it is to run out.

"No, I will not tell you if all of the ball pits in which you have balls are relatively equidistant for all of the competitors. Anything else?

"Excellent. The challenge will begin when the horn goes off. Good luck!"

OK, so this challenge definitely merited the workout gear, Sinsya reasoned. But it wasn't nearly as physical as it could be. And while Sinsya wasn't nearly as physically well-trained as the other competitors, she had a feeling that some of them, maybe Silas or Myranda, would just start running, and not do this in a strategic way. But Sinsya had an idea about how to do this intelligently, not just as a free-for-all.

When the horn sounded, Sinsya stepped outside of her house and picked up her geocacher. But instead of running, Sinsya fiddled with her watch until she got to its timer function. One by one, she went through the five balls she had to find, listening to the amount of time between beeps of the geocacher. Once she figured out the order of their distance, she elected to go for the farthest one first. Then, she'd be going shorter and shorter distances until the end, hopefully preserving her stamina. Plan in place, Sinsya confidently set out to accomplish her task.

* * *

 _Winsley Vwystrom, 13  
District One Male_

* * *

This was not Winsley's challenge.

Since beginning his dance training, Wins's mobility had certainly improved. But he still wasn't fast, especially as he also didn't have the best stamina in the world. That was what happened when one spent a significant portion of childhood learning to walk in the first place. The other problem was that these prosthetics didn't move like normal feet. They didn't have any toe-heel action; instead, they kind of clomped on the floor, almost like he was marching with them instead of walking. This meant that they didn't give him any boosts, either, like a person with legs would get from pushing off of the ball of their foot.

It would be better if he had running prosthetics. Those things were so cool! They could make him bounce and actually help give him speed. But he didn't have enough money for a second pair of prosthetics, really, especially because he'd have to keep getting new pairs as he grew. (He'd actually taken a slightly older pair with him to the Capitol in the interest of keeping his newest ones safe.) Wins also couldn't process how, even if he had told the Capitol that he wanted a second pair, they would have them made and (more importantly) fitted to him in a week. At home, it could take months to make and fit a pair. Plus, it could be considered an advantage to him to have two sets of legs, one of which was specifically made for challenges like this.

All in all, there was nothing that Wins could do at this point other than make do with his legs as they were. He took a few steps in one direction, then listened to the beeps of the geocacher. When he saw that they were getting faster, Wins began to jog that way. But when he picked up speed and began almost full-on running, he stepped on a rock, causing him to lose his balance and land right on the point where his prosthetic latched on. Something jabbed into his skin, causing Wins to yelp in pain.

"OK, so no running," Wins said, picking himself up and dusting himself off. He continued to make his way along, more slowly this time, until he found the first ball pit.

He found the first ball pit!

Now came the difficult part: getting the ball out of the pit. Winsley would not be able to kneel down without hurting his knee again, and if he sat, it would be very difficult to get up. He would just have to wait until another competitor came by; Wins assumed that there were not… what was twenty-eight times five? Over a hundred ball pits in the Arena. (Although he wouldn't put that past the Gamemakers.) He knew he wasn't going to win the challenge anyway; it would be better for him to wait for someone else to come along and help him out.

If Chloe came by, she'd definitely help.

After a while, Winsley spotted a familiar shade of red in the distance. "Hi Silas!" he called out, waving to them.

"Winsley!" They called out in response, picking up their pace to get to him. "What's up?"

"I can't bend down to pick up the ball in the ball pit."

"Oh, because of your prosthetics."

Winsley nodded. "Can you find it for me?"

"Sure," smiled Silas. "I actually think I have one in here too. Give me a moment." Carefully, as if they'd already done so once before, Silas began to dig through the balls in the pit before pulling out Winsley's pink gold ball and their own one. "Here you go." Then, Silas caught view of Wins's leg. "Oh, no, Wins, I think you're bleeding! What happened?"

"I fell on my prosthetic while running."

Silas took a deep breath. "OK, how about this. That was my third find. Let's go back to the houses together, and then if you're willing to wait for me to find my last two, I'll help you with your other four so you don't have to move as much. Does that sound good?"

Wins nodded. "I knew I wasn't going to win anyway. This way, I might not come in last."

"OK. Here, let me carry you back. And on the way, let's talk a bit about your training."

Wins had no idea what Silas meant about training. But he was very happy to have an ally in this competition.

* * *

 _Alder Howe, 12  
District Twelve Male_

* * *

This was absolutely going to be Alder's challenge. Literally all it involved was running. And Alder was very good at running.

As soon as the gong sounded, Alder took off through the back door of his house. After spending the past day doing all of these boring challenges where he had to sit still, getting permission to run around in all of this open space was the best thing ever. The young boy tore through the trees like the Tasmanian devil, ready to bulldoze over every competitor in his path. This was the most open space he'd ever had to run in! Alder was unbelievably happy.

After a fairly significant amount of running, Alder suddenly felt himself getting short of breath. Maybe it was the air in Twelve that was still quite congested, but he wasn't able to run quite as much as he thought he was. Alder stopped, panting, suddenly aware of the fact that he was, in fact, competing in a challenge. And that he did not have the geocacher he needed to compete in it. Meaning that he had no idea where he was.

Alder turned around, trying to figure out how to retrace his steps. But the trees all looked the same! Growing up in Twelve, he wasn't really used to trees, except in the woods where he was never able to go. So this? This was a lot for him.

Panicking, Alder began walking again, fully aware of his elevated heart rate. The best thing to do when you get lost is keep walking, right? That's what Mom always said. No. That didn't sound right. Maybe he should go back to where he got lost. But when he tried to find his way back, he remembered why he was lost in the first place. Lots of trees. Alder was trapped in a dark, and probably very expensive, forest, with nowhere to go and no mommy and no daddy and no friends and…

This was definitely a time to panic.

As Alder ran around, panicking, he suddenly ran into a large body in a grey shirt. Looking up, he found himself looking right into the eyes of Ventus. Carefully, he took a few steps back.

"Do you need help, Alder?" Ventus asked kindly.

"Yes. I'm lost."

"Lost? How did you get lost?"

"I got excited to run and forgot to take my geocacher."

Ventus smiled sadly. "Well, I can't help you until I find another ball, so if you want to tag along with me, you can. And then I'll help you back. Does that sound good?"

Alder nodded. Carefully, he followed Ventus through the woods as the older boy in turn followed his geocacher. As they made their way through, they found themselves running into Aviel.

"Ventus, it seems as though you have a little follower."

"Well, he forgot to grab his geocacher, so he's going to stick with me and then I'll help him get back to our houses."

Aviel nodded. "That's quite nice of you."

"Thanks."

And Aviel was off.

Alder continued to follow Ventus until the boy from Six found a ball, which took quite a while, and then the two returned to the main area. "Now, don't forget the geocacher this time, Alder," urged Ventus.

"I won't. Thanks for your help, Mr. Ventus!"

"No problem, Alder."

Going back to his little house, Alder finally grabbed the geocacher he needed, then made his way out again. To his surprise, his geocacher was beeping fairly quickly! That must mean that there was a ball pretty close, which was really lucky for him, considering how far behind he'd been set. Alder glanced down at the geocacher, and being careful to follow the arrow directly, took off. After a few seconds of running, however, he found himself out of breath again. Alder decided, against what he perceived to be his better judgment, to walk instead of run now. That was probably his best bet.

Alder kept himself moving, following the ball that his geocacher was tracking. See, he had forgotten that he could switch to following another ball. And he didn't realize that it was odd that the speed of the beeping on his geocacher hadn't changed. In fact, Alder was hypnotized by it. He just kept automatically walking forward, following the arrow on the geocacher, allowing himself to almost fall asleep thanks to the rhythmic beeping.

Finally, though, the beeping picked up! Alder, too, picked up his pace, until he finally stumbled upon a ball pit. He must have one in here; after all, that geocacher was beeping furiously!

But there were so many yellow balls in it. How was he supposed to know which one was the right one?

* * *

 _Liana Klepper, 16  
District Nine Female_

* * *

Liana wasn't going crazy about this challenge. All things considered, it was probably better if she didn't win. She knew that it was equally likely that she'd be picked as it was for anyone else, but there was a part of her that was fully aware of how this looked for her family. Admittedly, she didn't necessarily want to be aware of it, but that was the position she'd found herself in as Garnet's niece. And she couldn't not be grateful for the comfortable life she'd been able to live since her adoption. It was that comfortable upbringing that made Liana confident about not winning. If she didn't, some other outer district kid would get a better life for being Victor. She didn't really need the wealth, after all.

Plus, not quite trying so hard in everything was going against the rules, in a way. She was always looking for those little ways to rebel against her parents' standards. This way, she could break the rules, have a good reason for it, and not seem ungrateful. It was a win-win.

(Admittedly, the possibility existed that she was doing better than she anticipated. She had no concept of the scores, after all.)

Liana had actually enjoyed this little running challenge. She didn't have great stamina, sure, but she did enjoy getting to spend some time out in the woods and doing something that didn't require her brain. It was a nice shift. She was also lucky that it actually hadn't been so difficult for her to find the ball pits with her balls in them, allowing this challenge to be a bit more of a leisurely jog than a full-on sprint.

Liana made her way back to the main challenge area with her third ball. She decided that this was a good time to take a break and get a drink. "Violet, can I have a bottle of water, please?" she called. A moment later, a parachute came down, depositing a chilled bottle of water into Liana's hands. She sat on her back stoop and carefully drank, letting the cold water wash down her throat. She might not have done all that much running, but that which she'd done had worn her out.

Suddenly, Liana caught sight of her. A girl in a bright blue top and a ginger braid, running across the forest a few yards away. She was toned, she was tanned, she was gorgeous. Liana was instantly attracted to this woman. How had she not noticed her before?

It took Liana a few moments to get over the initial shock of the woman's attractiveness to figure out who it was: Myranda Lidano, from Two. Liana then realized why she hadn't noticed her before: the day of the Reaping had been after the craziest day ever of inter-District travel, back and forth to the Capitol, so Liana was barely conscious of her own position for that day, let alone the names of the other competitors. Myranda then mostly stuck with other Careers during training and was so far away from her in the interviews that it hadn't made much of a difference. But now, just the simple glimpse of the girl from Two was enough to make Liana go absolutely nuts internally.

Now the question was whether or not to pursue her sexually. Liana did have a very close friend at home, after all. But the two were not technically girlfriends yet, and Liana wasn't sure if she wanted to risk wrecking what she perceived to be their best friendship for a relationship. And Liana wasn't physically attracted to Luster the same way that she had become to Myranda, even in just that instant.

The other question was how this would look to her mother and family. She was a representative of the Capitol, after all, more than Lyric or Silas were. Liana needed to be a positive role model, whatever that was.

But she was also still a teenager. And she had feelings that she felt a need to pursue. Her mother certainly couldn't fault her for that. Dania Klepper had been in the same position once. Not that Liana knew all that much about it; her mother was notoriously cagey on that subject. But it was the one way that Liana might be able to get her to be on her side.

All of the other possible concerns – Myranda's sexuality, whether or not she had a girlfriend, etc. – flew out the window for Liana. All that she wanted was to have sex with that girl.

And god damn it, she was going to get it.

* * *

 **Whoof! I think this is the fastest chapter I've ever written, MMAM and IDIDE combined. What do you all think? Will Sinsya's plan work? What happened with Alder? Did Aviel do anything to him? Thoughts on the other sections?**

 **Don't forget to fill out the check-in from the last chapter if you haven't already. I'm looking to really push this story along in the next month or so, and while we have like 22 Events chapters left, if this chapter is any indication, we'll be moving pretty quickly through it.**

 **Blog post will be up tomorrow as well.**

 **I'll see you all next time in a new district! Any guesses?**

 **-goldie031**


	36. I'll Need a Certain Potion

_Rochas Augustus, 17  
District Five Male_

* * *

For the first time in the Events, Rochas woke up to an alarm. That was unusual, as the challenges usually started somewhere in the mid-morning, after most of the competitors had woken up naturally. Clearly, today's challenge was going to be different from the ones that had come before.

"Good morning, competitors!" called Violet, as the alarm subsided. "Please proceed with your morning routine as normal; once you're all ready for the day, please meet outside in the courtyard for further instruction."

Rochas got out of bed, failed to tame his hair, and got dressed in the outfit provided: a lime green dri-fit shirt and orange basketball shorts. For the first time, he was wearing the same outfit two days in a row! Maybe finally the Capitol had figured out how to not waste fabric by making so many superfluous outfits. Then, he went downstairs to order breakfast. He ended up ordering some vegan granola, as he had for the past few days as well, because the darn Capitolites just had no concept of veganism. Once he was finished, Rochas drank a full cup of water, then headed out to the courtyard to wait for the challenge to begin.

"Good morning, Alexei!" exclaimed Alder, as a bolt of yellow lightning darted across the courtyard to the home of his friend.

Rochas didn't understand how the younger kids were so energetic in the morning, especially in this stupid wasteful competition.

"Good morning, competitors!" called Violet. "Today, we are honoring the district which had potentially the most distinct change in industry after the redistricting, District Twelve! The advancements in science and medicine in Twelve are incredibly significant, but one thing that is sometimes forgotten about Twelve is that they actually had a culture of healing before. This kind of medicine was called homeopathic or herbal medicine, and it's the kind of medicine that we'll be replicating today.

"Each of you has been assigned a remedy to recreate over the course of this challenge. The assignment was deliberate, but we will not be telling you why you were assigned what you were assigned. This remedy is not necessarily a for a disease, but it may be. When the challenge begins, you'll enter your houses through the front door to meet your 'patient' and figure out what ingredients you need. Then, you'll go through the back door into the woods to find those ingredients. Once you finish, you'll come back to your house and prepare the potion. Unlike in yesterday's challenge, there is no limit to how many ingredients you can carry at once; however, be aware of how much you are physically able to hold.

"One other important detail about today. This is the only challenge; ie, for some of you, it may take the whole day. Therefore, this challenge is worth triple the points. First place will receive 84 points, second 81, et cetera.

"Are there any questions?"

"Will we have any clues as to where in the woods our objects can be found?" asked the ever-inquisitive Nell.

"Maybe. Don't count on it being direct, though. Any other questions? Nope? Great. You may enter your houses now. Good luck!"

When Rochas entered his house, he was surprised to find that his common room had been transformed into some sort of witches' coven. Three women stood around a bubbling cauldron, clearly preparing to create a potion of some kind. This was not a medical patient, from what Rochas could tell. One of the witches stepped forward to explain.

"The lad Macbeth is now the king,  
Yet mentally he's suffering.  
And now he wishes to be told  
Exactly what the future holds.  
The time has come to make our brew,  
To prepare for tomorrow's dew.  
Scotland's fate lies in our hands!  
Please quickly heed our commands.  
The things we need are twenty-three,  
Prepared and measured perfectly.  
Though many items must be found,  
Most of them come from the ground.  
Hurry, find the items, go!  
So we can say the lines you know:  
Double, double, toil, and trouble,  
fire burn and cauldron bubble!"

The witch handed a piece of paper to Rochas, then turned back to the cauldron.

Rochas scanned the paper and was immediately turned off by its contents. Goat's bile? The flesh of yew trees? A human liver? First of all, how was he supposed to find all of these objects? And more importantly, how could it possibly be ethical? All of these things were being taken from their natural habitats and put here to be used for a potion that would actually have any effect on anything.

Screw the Capitol.

* * *

 _Chloe Antoni, 12  
District Two "Male"_

* * *

This challenge could go so many ways, conclude Chloe as she prepared to enter her home. Violet's instructions were just so vague! She hoped she didn't get a contagious disease at least. That would be a big problem. But she figured the Capitol wouldn't do that, at least. If these Events were all about not having death, there was no way they'd risk the lives of literally all of their competitors by sending in someone contagious. She would be fine.

When Chloe entered her house, she found a couple of people who could only be described as peasants talking to a woman who could only be described as a witch. She snuck closer to the three adults, listening in to the conversation.

"You wish to have the curse reversed?  
I'll need a certain potion first.  
Go to the wood and bring me back:  
One: the cow as white as milk.  
Two: the cape as red as blood.  
Three: the hair as yellow as corn.  
Four: the slipper as pure as gold."

And with that, the witch vanished.

A look of concern spread across the man's face. "What's wrong, honey?" asked the woman. "We have to go now to find the objects!"

"But if we close down our store looking, we will make no money and have no food to eat for three days. I do not want to take that risk, especially if something goes wrong." Suddenly, he caught sight of Chloe. "Little girl! Can you help us?"

"Sure! What curse are we breaking?"

"This… witch," spat the peasant woman, "cursed my husband's family tree because of his father's actions. If we can find those objects, we can reverse the curse! We need you to go look for them for us. Can you?"

"Yes! But one question. Are we talking an actual, full-sized cow?"

The couple looked at each other. "Well, I believe so," said the woman.

"Do you remember the objects?" the man asked.

"Yes. A cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, a slipper as pure as gold."

"Very good. Take this pouch. It may have some things that will assist you in your quest. Good luck, young one!"

Repeating the objects to herself – "A cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, a slipper as pure as gold" – Chloe left her house, preparing to look through the woods. She assumed that, because she only had to find four items, she was doing pretty well in whatever criteria determined who got which remedy to prepare. But the issue with four items was that it was much more like searching for a needle in a haystack than it would be if she had more items to look for. She was looking for larger items in general, so she hoped that that would help her in her search.

Lo and behold, her prediction turned out to be true. Just moments into her wandering, Chloe ran into a boy, walking around with a cow that was almost as big as him, and it certainly looked somewhat underfed.

"Hello, friend! What are you doing with that cow?" she asked him.

"Oh, well, I was going to bring him to market. We need to sell him."

"Well, I might be able to buy the cow from you." Chloe reached into her pouch and pulled out a… smaller pouch. "Would you take this?"

"Well, what's inside of it?"

"I don't know. It's sealed. That must mean it's important."

"Well… OK," said the boy, reluctantly taking the pouch and giving the cow to Chloe. "Do you think I could see him again someday?"

"Well, I don't know. I have no idea what's going to happen to this cow."

"I hope he doesn't die. Good luck to you!"

"You as well."

Chloe watched the boy leave, then attempted to lead the cow after her. The problem was that the cow was literally taller than she was. Chloe knew she was short for her age, but she didn't know that it was possible to be shorter than a cow. (Admittedly, she didn't know she'd ever be this close to a cow.) She decided that her best bet was to try to get the cow back to her house, freeing her up to look for the cape, the hair, and the slipper.

"All right, Mr. Cow, my friend. Come on. Let's move. Please be nice to me."

Slowly, as if it had no regard for the time crunch Chloe was in, the cow began to lumber towards her home. If Chloe were any larger, she would probably have leverage over this cow, but she really didn't have a choice but to let it have a mind of its own.

Her remedy didn't feel like it was going to be hard to make, but if this cow simply wouldn't move, this was going to be a very long challenge.

* * *

 _Kitt Mosley, 17  
District Ten Male_

* * *

Kitt came in to his home in the middle of a heated argument between three children.

"The key to our problem is sneaking in," concluded the girl.

"But how are we going to? I am the most famous person at this school; not to say that conceitedly, but it's a fact. I'm recognized everywhere."

"Yes, because people now think you're the heir of Slytherin," retorted a red-headed boy.

"Yes, I know I'm not helping things right now with the whole parseltongue thing. But it also doesn't help that the head teacher of Slytherin doesn't particularly like me either."

The two boys continued arguing. But it seemed as though the girl had a better idea.

"Harry! Ron! What about Polyjuice?"

"Polyjuice?"

"Yes. It's a potion that will change the appearance of the person who drinks it for one hour. That's all we need to sneak in, find out what we need to find out, and then sneak back out. Quite simple."

"Well, who would we turn in to?" asked the darker haired boy.

"It genuinely wouldn't matter. We just need to not be ourselves."

"OK then, Hermione, how do we make Polyjuice?" the red-head asked.

"So I found this book called _Moste Potente Potions_. Look." Hermione opened a book up and showed it to her friends. The three pored over the book until the brown-haired boy exclaimed, "Guys! Leave this here for now. We're gonna be late for class. We'll figure it out." The three children rushed out the door.

Carefully, Kitt snuck up to the book and read through the ingredients. This was clearly the potion he needed to prepare. It seemed like the actual preparation would take a while, though, and would need some literal magic to get right. But there didn't seem to be any hint of any other option, so Kitt decided to go with it.

Kitt was not someone known for intelligence or logic necessarily – that would have to go to someone like Sinsya or Nell – but he did have a feeling that some of these items that needed to be found very specifically, like the fluxweed picked on the full moon. Kitt figured that he would need to look for some sort of store to buy these items, rather than look for them on the ground, because it was not a full moon. As he left his house, Kitt instinctively decided to begin by checking each competition zone. He had a feeling that other competitors would need ingredients from stores as well, and so that would probably be in a central location. But which zone to pick?

Kitt looked at his watch, fiddling until he came to the Arena map that he'd found. It turned out that he was closest to Zone Three. It actually made a lot of sense that the store he needed would be in Zone Three, because there were three kids in his home. Confidently, Kitt set off towards Zone Three.

When he arrived, Kitt found that his suspicions were correct. He had come across a little medieval village with a nice herbal garden, an apothecary, and a few other stores. Kitt made a beeline for the apothecary. He didn't know what the word apothecary meant, but it sound kind of magical, so that was at least a good place to start.

"Good morning, sir!" said the man behind the counter as the bell rang, indicating that Kitt had entered the shop. "What can I do for you today?"

"Well, sir, I think I need to find some potion ingredients. A book was left for me, and I think I need these." Kitt opened the book to the page that the children had been reading from.

The man took the book and read through the ingredients. "This is quite the potion to be making! Will you be trying yourself? You are of age, so I can't really stop you."

Kitt was not of age. "I'm not sure. I'm just getting the ingredients."

"Well, you're free to look around. The first six will definitely be here; I can help you identify them if you need. It's this last one that I don't know what to do with."

Kitt reread the list of ingredients, and the last of them finally registered: a bit of the person who you are going to turn in to.

What could that possibly mean? And who should Kitt try to get something from?

"Do you have any idea of how to get this bit of the person?"

"Well, not without knowing who you want to turn in to. Or at least, who the person who is making this potion wants to turn into."

"If I remember correctly, they didn't care so much who it was."

"So it's your call, but I would advise going about this delicately. You don't want it to seem like you're stalking someone."

Kitt nodded. "Can I leave the book here for a second?"

"Sure."

Kitt carefully maneuvered through the store, finding the six items he needed. He brought them to the man at the front to check that they were, in fact, correct. The man read through the potion again, then checked the labels on the items. "It looks good," proclaimed the man. "Just be careful. These are all glass, and I don't have extra of the lacewing flies. If you're gonna break a vial, break this one that contains the knotgrass. You can easily find that in the forest. Good luck!"

As Kitt left the shop, carefully carrying the six glass things, he suddenly spotted Jess running the other way. Jess was really such a lovely girl, really nice and bubbly and all that great stuff. Maybe she'd be a good person to pursue.

But not for her hair. That was a bad idea.

* * *

 _Sharen Cantiano, 16  
District Twelve Female_

* * *

Sharen's remedy was not one that was overly complicated. It just had, like, twenty different ingredients. Luckily, they were all herbs and flowers, and Sharen had found a large portion of them in an area of the forest not far from her home. (She was also lucky that she'd been given a visual guide to go along with the herbs and flowers she needed to find.) Sharen had gotten a few of them out of the ground already, but there were still so many to go, especially because she really didn't want to destroy entire bushes of flowers. She wanted to maintain some respect for the plants in the earth by taking as little as she could. Since this was so close, she could always come back for more.

This challenge was generally frustrating for Sharen. Firstly, it necessitated a lot of patience and caution that Sharen was not known for. More importantly, it was a challenge that was brought back fairly negative memories. Her mother had fallen ill at a time when all that was available was homeopathy, and it hadn't worked. The thought of the Gamemakers celebrating something that markedly did not work was incredibly frustrating for her. To a certain degree, she genuinely did not want to participate. But then, she remembered that this challenge was worth triple the points. Losing would be a significant hindrance to her. So while she didn't want to put effort in, the competitive part of her knew that she couldn't totally write the challenge off. So, she sat, plucking herbs and cutting flowers for a medicine that she knew would never work.

"Hey! Hi! Can you help me out?" asked a familiar voice.

Sharen turned around to see Kitt, carrying an insane number of glass somethings. "What do you need?" she scowled.

"Oops, never mind." Kitt stammered, already in the process of backing up; then he turned and ran away. There was something weird going on. Who could Kitt have mistaken her for? Sharen assumed that he was just looking for any woman, and so it didn't really matter who he found. That was just Kitt. Shaking the thought of the idiot from Ten out of her mind, Sharen continued at her work.

As Sharen continued to work through the flowers, cutting them individually, she heard the sound of footsteps coming near her. Two different sets of footsteps. Sharen looked up to see two males run right into each other a couple of yards in front of where she was sitting, one in a grey shirt and one in a red velvet colored one. The ingredients in their hands flew out, scattering all over the ground. The boy in the grey shirt had a ton of items; the boy in the red, significantly fewer.

"Oh, no!" the boy in the grey shirt exclaimed. "I'm so sorry."

"Oh, don't worry about it," replied the boy in the reddish shirt. "Here, let's pick them up."

The two worked together to pick up the items, searching the forest floor for tiny leaves and flowers. Sharen was glad that she hadn't been put in that situation; imagine trying to find one particular leaf! That would simply be impossible.

"Do you have everything?" asked the boy in grey.

"I think so." The boy in the red took off.

The boy in the grey looked through his items once more. He pulled out one flower, then looked at it with a sneaky grin. "Whoops, this isn't mine," he said to himself, tossing it over his shoulder.

Did that boy just screw the other boy over? Sharen just witnessed a total sabotage. Now what?

Instantly, Sharen recognized that she couldn't go and run the flower to the other boy now. The challenge was just too big and there was so much riding on it. Silas would just have to go back and get another flower. The question was what to do after the challenge. Should she tell on the boy in the grey shirt? It was probably the right thing to do for the other 26 competitors. But the thing was, whatever that boy in the grey shirt did, it didn't hurt her. It actually helped her. If the boy in the red shirt had to go and run back to find that flower, it would set him further back, which would be better for Sharen.

This whole situation wasn't her problem. Why should Sharen do anything about it?

* * *

 **Well, we've made it through another chapter! What do you think? Is Sharen right that she shouldn't do anything about the sabotages? What is the criteria that dictates how many items each person had to find?**

 **I wanted to address something incredibly important before closing the chapter. In the last chapter, I received one particularly transphobic review regarding two characters. I want to make it very clear that transphobia will not be tolerated in any review in this story, whether in a guest review or a regular one. These characters are dynamic individuals, and I am more than ready to hear legitimate criticism of my portrayals of them as characters. But dismissing them because of their valid identities? That is not OK in the slightest.**

 **On that note, I would like to publicly clarify that Sharen's misgendering of Silas in her POV here was deliberate, because she simply does not know them well enough to know that they do not identify within the gender binary. This was not me misgendering Silas, it was Sharen misgendering Silas.**

 **With that out of the way, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! We will be seeing the second half of the D12 challenge in the afternoon.**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**


	37. That Can Cut Like a Knife

"Hey, Bellona? Euodia?" called Millicent Jones, calling her colleagues over to her station. "We have a problem."

Bellona Terminus locked her station from which she was moderating the northern half of the Arena and came over to her longtime colleague. "What's up?"

"Take a look at what just happened." Millicent showed Bellona the clip of Aviel and Silas running into each other.

"Yeah, so they collided. At least Aviel didn't run into Kitt or someone who had a lot of glass."

"Keep watching."

Bellona watched as Aviel picked up one of Silas's flowers and carefully tucked it within his items. Once Silas had left, Aviel took the flower out of his pile, examined it, and tossed it aside. "What's the problem?" Bellona asked.

"Ruby is gonna be so mad at us!"

By this time, Bellona was quite used to her friend's nervous tendencies, as the two had known each other for nearly a decade, though Millicent had only joined Bellona and Euodia as a Gamemaker just about four and a half years prior. The three Selection ladies had requested to move onto the Events team when the Events came into being, which was a welcome respite from causing the deaths of the people from their districts.

"How can Ruby possibly be mad at us?" Euodia asked, joining her Selection comrades. "It's not like we could predict what Aviel is doing. He's outsmarted us."

"But I feel like we shouldn't _be_ outsmarted," Millicent groaned. "She'll say that this is our fault."

At that exact moment, Ruby came into the room. Ruby had discovered that the only Gamemakers on the Events team who weren't completely scared of her were the Selection ladies (or at least Euodia and Bellona, because Millicent was basically scared of everyone). So when she needed to talk to someone about something that was happening in the Arena, Ruby would generally start by talking to the Selection girls and then, if she needed to, talk to someone else about the specifics.

"All right, girls," Ruby jested a little bit, "who can explain to me what happened with Aviel?"

Everyone looked around at each other. Bellona offered, "To be honest, we don't know. We didn't think that someone would find a way to sabotage someone else in an individual competition."

"Yeah," echoed Euodia. Millicent nodded aggressively.

"Well, do you have a solution?"

Bellona sighed. "So here's the problem. I think the only way to fix it is to intervene. And I feel like the one thing that is not characteristic of the Events, or at least we don't want it to be, is a competition with Gamemaker intervention."

"So you're saying we leave it alone."

At that moment, Violet burst in. "Ruby! Guess what! The ratings for the Events are finally up."

"Really?" everyone exclaimed.

"Yeah. They were up a bit yesterday, but they skyrocketed when the interaction between Aviel and Silas aired today."

Ruby took a moment to think. Then, she turned to the assembled women and said confidently, "Let's not interfere. For now, we'll let the chips fall where they may and we'll go from there."

"But..." objected Violet.

"We'll talk about this after competition today if you have a problem. For the time being, things move on. Now, please make sure that nobody gets hurt this afternoon. That is the _last_ thing I want to see." And Ruby swept out.

* * *

 _Lyric Cloud, 15  
Capitol Female_

* * *

When Lyric came into her house, she found an elderly woman bustling around her kitchen. "Oh, hello, dear," the woman said. "Are you here to help me cook? That's so sweet of you! I have a lot to do, so come right in. Oh, dear, I forgot to offer you something to eat first. Would you like a cup of tea? A piece of cake? Some meat? You look so hungry."

"No, I'm fine," Lyric replied, feeling quite overwhelmed by this older woman.

"Are you sure you don't want a little something? Maybe a cookie?"

"No, I'm really fine."

"All right, then. I need to do a lot of grocery shopping, but in increments, so you'll probably be doing more shopping than actually cooking for the time being. I have some stuff, but we need to get some soup supplies. This is the list of everything I need to cook the soup. Please go pick them up. Thanks, darling!"

Lyric took the list and confidently set out to look for the ingredients. She figured that the ingredients wouldn't be right where her house was, so Lyric instead darted across the courtyard to the far other side of the Arena. Lyric decided to run around the Arena clockwise, carefully looking through small sections at a time to try to find the ingredients. She did find some parsley on the forest floor, but it wasn't until she came upon a quaint vegetable garden that she was able to get the rest of the ingredients. Once she was satisfied that she'd gotten everything, Lyric ran back to her house.

"Wonderful job, darling! I'll get the soup on right now. Where did you find these ingredients?"

"There was a vegetable garden down the way."

"Did you happen to catch what else was grown in the garden?"

"I mean, assorted other vegetables. I think I saw carrots, potatoes, maybe some string beans…"

"Oh, that sounds perfect! Can you go retrieve a bunch of those vegetables for me and bring them back? Here, take this basket to help you out."

"Sure."

Slightly aggravated, Lyric ran back to the vegetable garden, picking most of the potatoes and carrots and then bringing them back to the old woman in her house. "Thank you so much, dear. Do you want to cook these?"

Lyric nodded. She took out a cutting board and began to chop up the carrots and potatoes into round discs. Then, she grabbed a cookie sheet and laid out the green beans and carrot rounds, drizzled them with oil, salt, pepper, and garlic, and set it to the side. Her favorite way to prepare potatoes was to toss the slices with just oil and paprika and then bake them, so she decided to do that.

"Thank you very much, honey. Now, the last thing we need is a chocolate cake. I think there's a supermarket somewhere in here. Or maybe a dairy farm? That should get almost everything. And I think I have some chocolate in the pantry somewhere. Did you see a dairy farm somewhere?"

"No, but I'll look."

Lyric was getting kind of tired of running around in the Arena. She hadn't seen a farm near the vegetable garden, but she had a feeling that they couldn't be that far apart. Luckily, Lyric was right, coming across a farm stand selling milk, eggs, and flour. She picked up some of the ingredients, then returned to the home.

"Oh, good, you're back. Let's finish this cake and then we can eat."

Together, the two ladies worked together to melt the chocolate and bake the cake. Lyric soon realized that, despite any complaints she may have had about running around, she was unbelievably lucky to have gotten this as her potion. The old woman truly had so much wisdom to share. As they shared a meal, Lyric was able to ask the woman about her life and the changes she'd seen in Panem. "I don't know if I believe in all of Ruby's changes," the woman admitted. "I mean, growing up in the Captiol, I see the Games as a good thing. But that's because I've never had a relative affected by them, luckily. I think the Events have potential, though, but only after the Capitol is directly affected by the Games in a way that they haven't been yet. But that's mostly because the Games are only for the criminals. I think Ruby needs to do something big."

Lyric decided that, if there was anyone to ask the big question to, it was this woman. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, dearie."

"What do you think about fitting in? How did you handle it when you were my age?"

"Now that is a very good question."

* * *

 _Alder Howe, 12  
District Twelve Male_

* * *

Two challenges about running around in a row? Alder was absolutely thrilled. He knew that there was a second part to the challenge, but he didn't care; it was way more fun to run around a whole bunch. And weren't these Events all about fun? So after Alder found his items, he decided to take some time to run around a little bit longer. Maybe then he'd be able to focus better on the second part if he got his energy out after the first.

After yet another lap around the Arena, Alder returned to his house to finally begin the second part of the challenge. This was absolutely going to be the harder part of the challenge. Alder had some experience with cooking, but the fun thing about cooking was that you could kind of randomly throw ingredients in and it would more or less be good. But for his potion, he'd been given a luck potion. And the person who had told him to make the potion had told him that it was incredibly important that every step be done exactly precisely. If he messed up at all, the potion wouldn't work, and he would have to start over again.

That was a lot of pressure.

Alder laid out his ingredients on his table, then checked his recipe and ordered them in order of when they would be needed. After taking a deep breath to center his thoughts, he began.

First, Alder put an Ashwinder egg, as it was called, in the cauldron, then added some horseradish and heated it up. (This was quite a strange recipe.) As it was heating up, he looked through his ingredients and picked up a squill bulb that he was supposed to juice. Juice it? How was he supposed to juice it?

On the station that had been set up for him, Alder found a wooden board with a little indent on the bottom, a mallet, and a small glass jar that looked like it would fit nicely in the indent. That seemed like something that would work! Alder took the glass jar and placed it in the indent, then, being careful not to hit his fingers, used the mallet to smash the squill bulb until the juice ran down into the glass jar. Once the jar was full, Alder carefully poured it into the cauldron.

The next step was to stir the potion vigorously. Alder stood on a stepstool so that he could get some leverage on the cauldron, then carefully stirred until he was satisfied that the potion had changed color Suddenly, the liquid in the cauldron exploded; Alder ducked under the table just in time to avoid getting drenched by the potion.

Alder guessed that meant that he had to restart.

Luckily, the ingredients with which he'd started were the ones of which he had the most extra. Alder took his cauldron to the sink and washed it out, then refilled the cauldron with the potion base and began again.

First, the ashwinder egg. Then, the horseradish, and mix. That part he got right. That must mean that he messed up with the squill bulb. After looking at the jar closely, Alder noticed a line on it. Maybe he only had to add that much juice to the cauldron.

Carefully, Alder took a second squill bulb and laid it on his board, then smashed it open, again being careful not to smash his fingers. This time, he was careful to stop pouring the juice into the jar when he hit the line. Nervously, Alder stirred the potion vigorously again, but this time, nothing happened.

Thank goodness.

Alder turned back to the recipe for the next step. "Chop up anemone-like growth on the back of Murtlap, add to mixture, and heat." Alder skimmed his ingredients and grabbed a large blue squishy… thing that was labeled as a Murtlap growth, then put the growth on the cutting board.

Alder skimmed the potion recipe again for any inkling about how to cut the Murtlap. Did he need to do big pieces or small pieces? Horizontally or vertically? Alder figured that the best bet was to cut it into small pieces. At least, he figured. Alder had at least two more, so if this was wrong, he could always try again.

Alder placed his palm on top of the Murtlap growth, then began to cut it into pieces, chopping rather than slicing. Unfortunately, he got a little bit too comfortable chopping it. Before he could pull his hand away, Alder slammed the knife into his finger.

* * *

 _Crixus Anjou, 18  
District Eleven Male_

* * *

Crixus had gotten lucky this round. Despite the fact that his potion had more than thirty ingredients, he had managed to find a little village near his house that had a number of shops, from which he was able to obtain the vast majority of the objects. The twist with this round was that his list of ingredients was behind a sliding panel in the house. While the panel was slid down, his door was locked, and there was no pen or paper anywhere in sight. That meant that the challenge was entirely up to his memory.

Luckily, Crixus had a pretty good memory.

The problem, really, was the volume of ingredients that Crixus had to get. He had to take at least twelve trips to the village because he would sometimes just go to the wrong store to look for something, and then while looking for it, forget about another item. It was just hard to keep track of such a long list of things and the stores they corresponded to, not because remembering either on its own was challenging but because it was difficult to keep track of both at the same time and to coordinate them with each other. Thankfully, the stores were close, so Crixus was able to run back and forth and be confident that he'd gotten all of the ingredients.

Once Crixus thought he was done, he slid down the wall and lined up the ingredients in order of how they appeared, triple-checking that he had all of them. He counted thirty-four, and there were thirty-four items on the list, so Crixus figured that this was it. After checking one more time, he opened the second panel, which held the recipe and also unlocked the pot he needed to prepare it. At that moment, a second lock on the door activated, one which wouldn't unlock until he had put all of the ingredients into the cauldron.

"The recipe for this is simple: dump everything into the pot, wait for it to melt down, then feed it to one of the rats in the cage. If you have the correct ingredients, the rat should grow. If not, well… you'll see. In that case, you'll have to go for ingredients again. Good luck!"

It was an arduous task, but Crixus finally finished pouring all 34 ingredients into the pot. Then he grabbed the giant wooden paddle provided, stood on the stool to get some leverage, and began to stir. Stirring it took quite a while, but finally he managed to break it down into a liquid. Then, he took a sample from the pot and fed it to a rat. Immediately it began to swell in size, until it was nearly seven times the size it had started.

"Well, I guess it worked," smiled Crixus. A message on the intercom from Violet confirmed his suspicions. That was probably a good sign. Crixus guessed that the Gamemakers figured that he wouldn't do as well because he got so many ingredients (for whatever reason), so Crixus had a hunch that he had done pretty well!

As Crixus prepared to settle down for a nap before dinner, he heard a bloodcurdling shriek coming from a house close to his. And that was a kid's shriek! Everything in Crixus's mind wanted him to keep away, but his heart told him that this younger kid needed him. Instinctively, Crixus ran towards the source of the screaming, bursting into Alder's house, finding the younger boy cradling a blood-soaked hand.

"Alder, what happened?"

"OOOOOWWWWWWW!" Alder cried.

"Medic! We need a medic!" called Crixus. He quickly searched for a piece of fabric of some sort to act as a tourniquet. Then, he carefully wrapped it to stop the bleeding. "Does that hurt?"

"A little," sniffed Alder.

"But it has to be tight so that we can stop the bleeding until a medic gets here, OK?"

"OK," nodded Alder.

At that moment, three men dressed in white (for some godforsaken reason, medics always wore white when they knew that blood could stain) came into the room. "What happened?" asked the team's leader.

"Alder cut himself," explained Crixus.

"And Crixus, are you done such that you can be in here?"

"Yes. I wanted to make sure Alder was OK."

"Very nice," smiled the team lead. "Well, let me look at the finger." The medic carefully peeled back the makeshift bandage. "Good call putting a form of tourniquet on it. Well, it looks like all we need are a few stitches. It doesn't look that bad, actually, Alder. We can stitch it up right now."

"Is it gonna hurt?" Alder asked Crixus.

"Not a lot. They're gonna numb it for you. Would you like me to tell you a story to distract you while you wait?"

"Yes. Can you tell me about a big brave hero?"

"I can try," Crixus smiled.

* * *

 _Myranda Lidano, 18  
District Two Female_

* * *

These Events were perpetually surprising Myranda, who was deep in thought as she continued working on her recipe. She didn't know if she'd done well, but she was genuinely impressed that the Capitol had managed to come up with a whole bunch of different challenges. And, she definitely was not prepared for most if not all of them. Physical training only did so much, she figured, and if you went totally the wrong way for the search and find challenges, as Myranda had done today, you'd be screwed.

It was disheartening, really, to encounter so much that Myranda didn't know how to do. She was, after all, in the top ten in her year! She really, really had a chance to get into the Games, and maybe even win! But now she was stuck here, without much hope of winning at all. It was incredibly frustrating for a high achiever like her.

Myranda couldn't bear to put the blame on her trainers. They were just doing what they were told by those who oversaw the tributes. And she knew that, if there was any district that was known for sticking to a training rhythm, it was Two. Even if they'd known exactly what competitions the Events were going to contain, there is no way they were going to change anything, especially because there were no volunteers. No use wasting valuable training time on a one in a thousand chance at minimum of getting Reaped when they needed to focus on Games Victors.

But when some lowly Outer District kid won these Events, what would Two think?

More importantly, could Myranda actually do anything to change the culture in Two? Silas sure thought so. They had come up to her the day before to ask her about her opinions of training. Silas was convinced that they could make substantial changes to the training system in the districts to give potential competitors a better chance at winning. But Silas had trained in One, a district known for flexibility and for a lack of continuity between Academies. That's how you could get a tribute with a traditional weapon like poison in a Games with a tribute who used her body as a weapon. Of course, they'd be able to get more variety in their training when there was no curriculum, and if someone wanted to start an Academy designed for the Events, so be it. But in Two? The Iron Fist of Panem? Not likely.

Myranda had found herself so deep in thought that she was surprised to be nearly finished with the recipe. Carefully, she added in the last few herbs, stirred up the remedy, and then brought it into her patient. "Was this what you were looking for?" Myranda said politely.

"Yes!" her patient exclaimed. "This will be perfect for my son's chicken pox. Thank you for your help!"

"Of course." And with that, the woman left Myranda's house, rushing to help her child. A quick announcement from Violet confirmed that she had completed the challenge.

Myranda, kind of tired of her house, decided to walk outside and get some sunlight. When she left, she looked to her right and saw something that she never expected to see: Chloe riding a pure white cow.

"Chloe?" Myranda asked, approaching her district partner.

"Yes?" Chloe replied as though everything was completely natural.

"Are you riding a cow?"

"Yes."

"How did that happen?"

"Well," Chloe explained, "I needed this cow for a potion so that I could feed the rest of the ingredients to it. I bought this from a little boy in the forest, but when I went back to look for him to give the cow back, he was nowhere to be found. So… I kind of decided to make her my pet. Myranda, meet Milky White!" The little girl beamed from atop her newfound friend, warming Myranda's heart.

"All right, then, just make sure to have someone help you off of the cow so you don't get hurt."

"Yeah, I heard someone scream earlier. I hope they're OK."

"Me too."

Myranda left her very content district partner and moved over to a little grassy patch near a little pond that she'd found a few days before. She slid her shoes and socks off and dangled her toes in the pond. Despite being from Two, Myranda loved water. There was something really special about the feeling of the water on her feet that, for whatever reason, people from landlocked districts just didn't understand.

As Myranda sat, appreciating her surroundings, she heard another pair of footsteps behind her. "Can I sit here?" said the other girl.

"Sure," Myranda shrugged. "Whatever you want."

"I'm Liana," said the girl as she sat down. "I'm from Nine. Remind me your name?"

"Myranda. Two," she replied curtly.

The other girl, sensing that Myranda was not into conversation, quieted down, just sitting patiently on the side of the pond.

Myranda turned to look at Liana. Something about the whole situation struck Myranda as odd. There was no way that Liana had just come upon the pond; she had to have some sort of ulterior motive.

Maybe Liana loved her.

Myranda was not instantly attracted to Liana physically as it appeared Liana had been to Myranda. But there was something attractive to Liana: her connections. Now that winning the Games were certainly not an option, and winning the Events was also quite unlikely, Myranda needed to find some way to up her status. And being in a relationship with Liana was certainly a way to do that.

Myranda struck up a conversation with the girl from Nine, leaning in to Liana's flirting. The girl from Two decided to let the relationship flow as it may. And who knew? Maybe this would develop into something more.

* * *

 **Well, that's the chapter, friends! What do you all think? Will Alder be OK? Will Liana end up with Myranda? What is going to happen with our cow friend? What is Ruby's idea?**

 **We have hit our next check-in! This one is a little different than the last few, so please pay attention. Instead of ranking your seven favorite competitors, please rank the seven you think would be the best Victors. (Just like the last time, the left-most column will give them the most points, the next column over the second-most, etc.) Also, you cannot vote for your own competitor for this time. These rules apply for just this check-in; they will go back to normal this time. **

**To find the key word for the check in, look for the underlined letters :).**

 **I can't wait to see what you all think! See you next chapter,**

 **Goldie031**


	38. Go, Ninja, Go, Ninja, Go!

Pacifica Corwin snuck down to the main room of the rebel complex in which she lived. Peeking around the doorframe, she caught sight of Alexios sitting there with Cerise Emerald, as he had been doing almost daily since she joined the rebels just a few days prior. And that made Pacifica mad.

See, before the President's kid joined, Pacifica had been Alexios's right hand man. She had been involved in nearly every decision that they'd made for basically a decade. But now that someone else was in the picture, Alexios had basically abandoned her. Pacifica was rational enough to recognize that maybe Alexios was just downloading information from her, and that was the only reason that they were spending so much time together. But while she was still training, Pacifica had learned how to analyze people, a system that had been instituted to attempt to avoid getting screwed over by allies. And whenever she saw Cerise, something in her demeanor made Pacifica both apprehensive and nervous.

Something told Pacifica that Cerise was up to no good.

After Cerise left, Pacifica took a seat next to Alexios. Her boss was frantically scribbling in a notebook, trying to internalize as much as he could from that day's conversation. Pacifica let him finish writing, then said, "Hey, Alexios. Can I talk to you?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"I think we need to stop working with Cerise. I don't trust her."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think we're sharing the same goals, and I have a feeling she's using us."

Alexios gave Pacifica a knowing smile. "You're just saying that because she's Ruby's daughter. Look, the more we've talked the more she's kind of leaned over to our side. I know she came off as not totally on our side when she came in, but she's really interested in furthering our cause. She just… she came off wrong."

"I don't buy it."

"Fine. But right now, the plan is to work with Cerise to plan a rebellion using her inside connections. If you're not comfortable with that, you can leave."

Pacifica sighed. Alexios was putting down a hard line. And she certainly didn't want to see the Games continue, so she would just have to grin and bear it for the time being. But she sure wasn't happy about it. And when Alexios turned out to be wrong, he'd just come crawling back to her.

* * *

 _Jessamine Rogers, 16  
District One Female_

* * *

After breakfast, Jess sat calmly with her sketchbook and some colored pencils in the courtyard, ready to draw out a new dress. Jess hadn't had a ton of time to draw since the Events began, but she liked to take a little time either in the morning or in the afternoon to sketch something out as not to lose her skills in designing. It was really fun to imagine all of these luxurious gowns that, if she won, she'd be able to make for high-ranking Capitol socialites. She could make so much money that way, and plus, then those who had less money than her would be able to get money from designing clothes for the common folk.

Jess had no concept of how well she'd been doing, overall, but she had a feeling it wasn't great. So, knowing that she wouldn't be able to count on Victory money for the rest of her life, Jess had tried to keep up her design skills to hopefully take over the family business with her brother, Kaiser. But that meant giving up designing for the socialites, and instead sticking with designing affordable clothing for the common folk. That was the safer option for lower-class families, because that meant that the clothing would sell. Not that Jess's family was lower-class necessarily, but they were certainly not nearly as wealthy as many of the others in One. So safe work that would always bring in money was always better.

As Jess continued to sketch, she heard footsteps coming towards her. She looked up to see Kitt approaching. Jess had heard from the other girls that Kitt was really interested in a girlfriend, and that he'd already tried Sharen and Luna out. That boy was completely see through. Jess wasn't interested in Kitt as a boyfriend, so she needed to shut this down real quick.

"Hi, Kitt!"

"Hey! Whatcha doing?"

"I'm just designing this gown for my girlfriend, Avery, to wear. She wants something really nice if she comes to my Victory Ball, and she wants me to design it."

"Oh." Kitt looked incredibly deflated. He opened his mouth a few times to try to strike up a conversation with Jess, but it seemed as though he was almost physically incapable of talking to her just as a friend. He was just… sitting there slack-jawed.

Mission accomplished.

Jess turned back to her sketchbook to draw a little bit more. But Kitt didn't leave! He still sat there, shellshocked, trying to figure out his next move. Luckily, before the silence got too awkward, Violet's voice called through the Arena.

"Good morning, competitors! It is almost time to begin our next competition. Today, we are going to be honoring the district responsible for nearly all of our agriculture, District Eleven! We are so proud to have a district that has revolutionized agriculture for us, not only in learning how to plant more crops in less space but also in making sure that our crops are healthier and more filling. But the centerpieces of Eleven? Its orchards, with sweet, plump fruit growing from their branches, which we are going to pay homage to in our challenge today.

"For our morning challenge, we are going to play a real-life version of an ancient game called Fruit Ninja, so if you have not yet changed into your athleticwear competition uniform, please do so now. Unlike the rest of the competitions we've had so far, you will be competing in a rotation today. When you hear your name, please go to the competition zone that we say. We will explain the rules of the competition when you get there, because it will be easier for you to watch a video than anything else. You will have an opportunity to ask questions there. Good luck today, competitors!"

After a moment, a robotic voice could be heard. "Liana Klepper, please go to Zone One. Nell Edwards, please go to Zone Two. Amazon Brown, please go to Zone Three. Crixus Anjou, please go to Zone Four."

"Well, I have to go change," Jess said cheerily, standing up to go inside. "Good luck today, Kitt!"

"Good luck," mumbled the dejected boy from Ten.

* * *

 _Morrel Elmwyner, 14  
District Seven Male_

* * *

The thing that alarmed Morrel most about the challenge was that Violet hadn't explained it yet.

See, Morrel was the kind of person who depended on carefully thinking of plans before he began to do things. He need a clear and comprehensible method so that he could do the best he possibly could. For most of the challenges, he'd had enough lead time to come up with something. More likely than not, he'd have to figure out what to do with this one on the spot.

That was simply not good.

Morrel quickly got dressed into his athleticwear, then began to think about what Fruit Ninja could possibly be. Maybe it was something about sneaking around and stealing fruit! That could be fun. Or, it could have something to do with swords. Maybe they had to cut the fruit off of the trees! But see, that was scary. If he messed up and couldn't handle the sword or whatever he might end up cutting himself. Or someone could throw a sword at him and impale him. Or… or…

There was no way real sword would be involved. It would be too dangerous. And President Emerald wouldn't let that happen. He hoped.

So if this wasn't going to involve risking falling and breaking a bone because he was in a tree, nor any form of weapon? What could Fruit Ninja possibly be?

"Morrel Elmwyner, please go to Zone One."

Well, it was time to find out. Quickly, so as not to get in trouble for being late, Morrel made his way to his assigned competition zone. When he got there, he found a room waiting for him that looked just a bit smaller than the one for that puzzle room challenge. Morrel spotted a green light on top of the door. That probably meant that he could go in, so he did.

Once the door was shut, a projector in the back of the room flickered to life. Morrel watched a figure on the screen act out the instruction he received from Violet.

"Welcome to Fruit Ninja! Please listen to these instructions carefully, as I will only say them once.

"Once the instruction video finishes, you will put on the virtual reality headset hanging on the wall. Then, raise your right hand to begin.

"Once the game starts, cartoon fruit will begin to pop up around you. To score points, move your hands to cut through the fruit that you see. Slicing through multiple fruit at once is a combo, and will give you extra points. However, missing a fruit will give you a strike. Additionally, you will get two strikes if you hit a bomb.

"There are two game modes from which you can choose. In the first, you have two chances to do as well as possible, but only five strikes for each one. In the second, you have ten strikes but only one try. When you hold up your hand to begin, please hold up a number of fingers corresponding to the game mode that you would like to choose.

"If you need to pause over the course of the challenge, all you need to do is hold up both of your hands. You may have as many pauses as you want. To restart, raise both hands again.

"If you do not have any questions, you may put the headset on and begin whenever you're ready."

Morrel decided to first weigh his options. If they were giving two different options for the competition, one had to have an advantage over the other and they were just trying to get the competitors to realize it. In Morrel's mind, the best option was the one with ten strikes. See, if he got about the same score on both of the rounds, only one would count. But if he did one round with ten strikes and paused after the fifth, he'd still get a break, but would basically get double the points. That was clearly the smarter way to go.

Morrel carefully slid the VR helmet on over his head. He held up two fingers, then prepared himself for the game to begin.

The game started simply, with one or two pieces of fruit coming in at a time. Initially, Morrel kept himself very calm and collected, methodically hitting each piece of fruit one by one. But eventually, he let himself get caught up in the fun of the game. There was something freeing about swinging his arms randomly like a maniac! And when he stopped thinking so hard about the game, it was actually kinda fun!

The problem was, when you randomly swung your arms around to try to hit everything, you hit all of the bombs as well. Morrel didn't notice that he'd gotten all ten strikes until a robotic voice called, "Game Over."

* * *

 _Mallory Farro, 15  
District Eleven Female_

* * *

Mallory had been feeling pretty good about her social situation during training. She'd had Jess, she'd met some other girls, and she'd begun feeling more confident in her own skin. But now that the Events had started, she felt that everyone had become very self-focused. And, consequently, she felt that she was fading into the background of not only their minds, but the minds of everyone in general. That wasn't a pleasant feeling to have, especially because she knew that they didn't intend to hurt her feelings.

There was one thing that was keeping Mallory's confidence up, though: her challenge performance. Obviously she didn't have the physical skills of a Career like Silas, especially considering her leg situation, or the mental skills of someone like Sinsya. But there was something about yesterday's challenge that gave her a ton of confidence. She had just found the ingredients so quickly, and the recipe had come together so easily! It was the first time in her life that Mallory felt that she'd done well at something. And that was an amazing feeling to have. Her parents had certainly never enforced the idea that she could be good at anything. But these Events had given her the ability to feel confident. That was a gift she'd never be able to thank the Capitol enough for.

Thanking the Capitol. Who would have guessed?

"Mallory Farro, please go to Zone Three."

Instinctively, Mal left through the back door of her house and navigated towards Zone Three. When she got there, Mallory waited for the light above the door to turn green, then entered the room.

After watching the instruction video, Mal settled herself in and prepared for the challenge. It was primarily a physical challenge, she thought, but not to an extreme degree. As long as she could keep her balance, Mal figured she'd be in good shape! At least she hoped so. Knowing that she had low stamina, Mal decided to opt for the first option, so that she could have a break in between rounds, and hopefully learn from her mistakes in the first round to do better during the second. Mal put on the special headset and raised one finger on her right hand, indicating that she was ready to begin.

The first round was dicey, to say the least. Mal just couldn't get the hang of slicing through the fruit. It did not take long for her to get three strikes. Finally, once she got her coordination down, she was able to get a few points before mistaking a bomb for a piece of fruit and losing.

"May I take a break?" Mal asked.

"Yes. When you're ready, put the headset back on and raise your arm."

Mal took off the headset and stretched her arms a little bit before requesting a bottle of water. Despite not having done much physical activity at all, her throat was parched. When it came through a little slot, Mal drank about half of it before putting her headset back on and raising her hand to indicate that she was ready.

This time, Mallory was much more prepared for the fruit to come. She did a pretty good job for the first few pieces of fruit, and made sure not to hit the first bomb, but Mallory was simply overwhelmed when things began flying at her from all directions. Before she knew it, she'd gotten five strikes again.

Feeling completely overwhelmed now, Mallory took off her headset, grabbed the water bottle, and made her way, in a daze, back towards her house. But instead of going back in through her back door, like she normally did after challenges, she ended up in the courtyard.

"Hey, Mallory! Come sit," called out Jess, who was sitting under a tree with a sketchbook. Mallory perked up and went to go sit next to her friend.

"Hi Jess."

"How have you been? I haven't seen you out here in a while."

"I've just been… in my house. Alone."

Jess looked crestfallen. "You should've told me! I would have come over."

"I'm not used to having friends or inviting people to my house. And I'm not used to being allowed to go to other people's houses. And I'm really not allowed to leave the house at home because if I'm not there when my parents get back they'll hurt me so I generally just stay in."

Jess looked absolutely crestfallen. She instantly enveloped Mallory in a loving hug. "I'm so sorry I didn't know! I would have come to check on you sooner but I wanted to make sure your house was your own space if you needed it. Come on. Let's go get lunch together and then we'll hang out out here together and eat! I'll help you get comfortable making more new friends."

"OK," smiled Mallory, happy to be feeling accepted once again.

* * *

 _Ramona Wayland, 13  
District Ten Female_

* * *

After getting into her athleticwear, Ramona stepped outside into the courtyard to wait for the challenge to begin. The Arena was the perfect weather: seventy-five degrees and sunny! Man, if only Ten was temperature-controlled like the Arena was, Ramona would be outside all the time.

Coming out into the courtyard, Ramona noticed something exciting and unusual, that she hadn't seen in a very long time. Instinctively, she made her way over to it.

"Is this your cow?"

"Yes, it is! This is Milky White."

"Do you mind if I pet it?"

"Sure?"

Almost as though she was in a trance, Ramona approached the cow and delicately patted it on the head in a circular motion. Carefully, Ramona moved her way down the cow, until she'd rubbed its whole back. Then, she snapped out of her trance and turned to the cow's owner. "Thank you!"

The other kid looked like they'd seen a ghost. "What was that?"

"Oh," Ramona giggled. "I forgot that that's weird for someone who lives outside of Ten. For us, cows are considered really lucky. Most families, regardless of what they do for a living, have a good luck family cow. When we're going into dangerous situations, we pat our cows like that to bring us luck. The cows feel so loved before the Reapings…

"I feel like I haven't introduced myself to you yet. I'm Ramona."

"Chloe," replied the other kid, offering her hand to shake. Ramona took it.

"Where are you from?"

"Two. I've mostly been hanging out with other kids from the traditional Career districts, so that's probably why we haven't met."

"Doesn't that get hard? I mean, spending time with older kids?"

"A bit, but I have Winsley. The One Male. He's thirteen. But sometimes she goes by Winslet. It depends."

"Well, if you want to hang out with some other younger kids, I spend a lot of time with Alexei from Three, Morrel from Seven, and Alder from Twelve. Feel free to come be with us sometime!"

"Maybe I will."

Ramona looked at the cow's udders. "She looks like she needs to be milked."

"Oh. I don't know how to do that."

"I'll do it! Let me come by after the challenge."

"Sounds good to me."

Suddenly, Ramona heard her name called. "Oop, gotta go."

"Good luck today, Ramona!"

"Thank you."

Ramona made her way over to Zone Four and entered the little room she found there. After listening to the instruction video, Ramona elected to go with the second option. She felt that there wasn't necessarily a benefit to doing one or the other if the gameplay was the same for both; you were either going to do very well or very poorly regardless. Ramona wanted the opportunity to have one trial run and one real try, even though she wasn't sure if she really needed a test round.

Ramona quickly figured out that this competition was going to be a matter of finding a rhythm. As long as she could keep herself moving and swiping at a fairly good rate, she would be in good shape. It turned out that she was right. Her first round was an absolute disaster. No matter what happened, she couldn't find a pattern. It was one of those things where she couldn't even figure out what had happened; one minute, the game had started, and the next, she had five strikes.

Yeesh.

Before Ramona indicated that she was ready for the second round, she decided to test out the lag time on her hands. Ramona swiped around, paying attention to where her real hand was in relation to her body and then how long it took the blade thing that appeared on screen to travel the same distance. Once she'd figured that out, Ramona practiced her reflex time, before indicating by raising her hand that she was ready to go.

The second round went a lot better for Ramona. She used the first few pieces of fruit thrown her way to make sure that her theory about how her hand motions worked was right, then used that to her advantage as the game sped up. She also quickly figured out how to wait and make diagonal strokes to take advantage of combo scores. But, all good things had to come to an end, and it was one unfortunately timed stroke that caused her to hit the bomb that cost her her last two strikes.

As Ramona made her way back to her house, she walked past Chloe's house. The girl from Two was sitting with another younger kid in front of her house. "Hey, Ramona! This is Wins," Chloe introduced her companion.

"Hi guys! I'll leave you two to your conversation."

Looking at Chloe and Wins was like looking into her future. The two really, genuinely looked as though they were in love. And that fact was so clear to everyone around them, too!

Why couldn't her relationship with Alexei be that clear?

* * *

 **Well, there we have it, another chapter! It's always fun to get to pick up another challenge. What do you think of the chapter? Which option for the challenge do you think would be better? Did Aviel manage to sabotage anybody?**

 **A quick reminder if you have not already that there is a check-in from last chapter, so please see that for more info. Also, an update on the blog: Because of the Aviel situation, I'm trying to find a way to reveal the scores and how I scored it without showing the charts as I'd been doing. Unfortunately, I won't have time to figure out the new system until next week. So assume the blog is dead for now, because I want to keep pushing out chapters before camp!**

 **Lastly, if anyone wants to join the Discord, shoot me a PM! We'd love to have you join our community there.**

 **I think that's it for now. See you next time!**

 **-goldie031**


	39. Cherry, Cherry

_Luna Powell, 18  
District Five Female_

* * *

"And that's how I ended up halfway across the Capitol with only a digeridoo and a single jade earring," finished Lyric. "It was probably the craziest day of my life."

"That does sound nuts," Luna acknowledged. "But what happened to the trucks of molasses?"

"Nobody knows. They disappeared."

"How do two trucks of molasses just… disappear?" asked Jess.

"I don't know. But they were never seen again. So, who wants to go next?"

Nobody, certainly not Luna, wanted to follow Lyric's odyssey of a story. Luckily, they didn't have to, as Violet's voice echoed through the Arena, indicating that it was time to prepare for the next challenge.

"Good afternoon, competitors! It is almost time to begin the afternoon challenge. Please return to your houses and, if you have not already done so, change back into your athleticwear. I will give you the instructions for the challenge once you've returned to your houses."

"Good luck, everyone," said Luna cheerfully before returning to her house. She had not changed since the morning – and didn't understand why anyone would – so she patiently waited until Violet returned to explain the challenge.

"As I said earlier today," began Violet, "we are celebrating the bountiful orchards of District Eleven. And what better way to experience orchards than by picking fruit from them ourselves? That's the idea behind today's challenge.

"Scattered around the Arena are 25 plastic cherries in your color, each of which is worth a point. Now, I'm not talking life-size cherries, I'm talking volleyball-sized cherries. Don't worry about being able to see them; they should be pretty obvious. In order to finish the challenge, you need 25 points, so all you need to do is collect all 25 cherries in your color. To get the points to count, you'll bring the cherries back to your house and place them in the tube in your living room. You may bring as many cherries back at a time as you can carry.

"In addition to cherries of your color, there are also a lot of regular red cherries scattered around the Arena. Each of these cherries is worth half a point. So if you were only to collect the red cherries, you would need to collect fifty of them to win. Additionally, there are quite a few rainbow cherries. Each of these cherries has a mysterious power out of seven options. You can gain five points, lose five points, gain ten points, lose ten points, automatically finish, force an opponent to start over, or lose all of your points and have to start over. If someone has to start over, all of the cherries of their color will be re-placed somewhere in the Arena, but the red and rainbow cherries they collected will be lost.

"Are there any questions?"

"Can you take other competitors cherries?" asked Luna.

There was a pause. "Other competitors' cherries cannot count for points for you; the tube will not accept them. Anything else?

"Excellent. Please wait for the horn, and then you may begin. Good luck!"

Luna was feeling pretty good about this challenge. It was really quite similar to the two other scavenger hunt challenges, but this time, there was the wrinkle of having lots of different ways to win. Luna decided that the best bet was to aim for her cherries. This way, she didn't have to worry about someone else stealing hers, and she'd be able to recover fairly easily if someone else screwed her over. Strategy in mind, she was feeling pretty good when the gong sounded.

Luna decided that the best way to look was to run in concentric circles. So, she took one step away from her back door, then turned to the left and ran in a full loop, looking for her cherries. When she looped around, cherryless, she took another step out away from her door and ran around in a circle again. On her fourth or fifth circle, Luna finally found one of her cherries! She decided to take it and keep running around to try to find another cherry for sake of saving time.

As Luna continued on her loop, she found what looked to be one of her cherries, even though the color seemed slightly different from the one she was holding. But time was of the essence, and so she just grabbed it and kept going.

A few minutes later, Luna heard someone else's footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw Amazon on her heels, also holding a cherry. "Luna!" Amazon shouted. "Hang on a sec!"

Luna paused and turned around, alarmed. "Is everything OK? What's up?"

Amazon caught up with Luna, paused, and took a deep breath. "I think you might have one of my cherries."

Luna looked down at the two cherries in her hand, then at the one in Amazon's. The cherry she'd grabbed in haste was actually quite different in color from the first one she'd found, and it was exactly the same as Amazon's cherry. "You're quite right! I'm so sorry, I thought it was mine." Luna gave the cherry back to Amazon

"No worries. This is a challenge where I could have overcome it. But I'm glad I found you first. Good luck!"

"You too!" And with that, Amazon and Luna both ran off to find their cherries and finish the challenge.

* * *

 _Rochas Augustus, 17  
District Five Male_

* * *

Rochas was actually pretty happy about his attire for the challenge. Was his outfit the prettiest? No. But it was the same for, like, four challenges in a row! That was really impressive for the normally exorbitant, frivolous, and wasteful idiots from the Capitol. But the challenge? Using that much plastic to make these cherries was absolutely horrendous. And what would happen if not all of the cherries were found? Then they'd be in the forest for quite a long time and poison the ecosystem. The Capitol just had no regard for the environment, even if this was just a fake forest created for the sake of being an Arena. Actually, that was much worse. The more he thought about it, nothing about the Games or the Events were environmentally good. And that made Rochas even madder.

Rochas decided that this would be the challenge during which he would take a stand. He wasn't going to win anyway; the Capitol hated him, after all. There was nothing that could convince Rochas to take part in it. Rochas elected instead to step into the woods and then sit, not doing anything, until the challenge was done. That would show them.

Rochas sat, watching the other competitors run around, their arms overflowing with cherries. He was especially amused by the younger kids who were holding way more cherries than they reasonably should, trying to run around and collect more to save time, but dropping some of them as they tried to collect more. Rochas even watched a certain small and exasperated tribute drop all of the cherries, then begin to run back and forth to their house one cherry at a time. Clearly, they hadn't saved nearly as much time as they thought they did.

Rochas decided to see how many of the competitors would pass him. They were all wearing a different colored shirt, so it would be pretty easy to keep track. After about 45 minutes, or at least he thought it was about that long, at least sixteen of the twenty-eight competitors had passed him. And he knew that some of the other younger kids had passed by earlier as well. Eventually, he narrowed it down to two people that had not yet passed him: Winsley, which made sense because he couldn't really run in general, and Henley.

Henley.

At that exact moment, Rochas got the feeling that he was being watched. Like someone had been following him around for the day. (Not that it was all that hard to follow him around – he'd been sitting down all day.) And it couldn't be Winsley, so it had to be Henley!

Things began clicking into place for Rochas. He'd seen Henley looking at him before while talking to people. And he knew, because she was from Thirteen, that there was a good chance that she was involved with some sort of Capitol military thing. More than likely, she was supposed to be watching him because he was in the Save Earth Activists!

He had to throw her off his trail.

Rochas stood up and bolted. He didn't even care where he was running; all that mattered was that he was running away from Henley. He knew that, being from Thirteen, Henley probably had much more stamina than he did. But the goal was to get Henley far away enough from his house that he could get back and keep her off his trail. But as Rochas kept running, he realized that he wasn't hearing footsteps behind him. Rochas began to search the area around him, but Henley was nowhere to be found.

Damn it! Henley had used super-secret Capitol mental manipulation powers to get Rochas away from his house to mess with it in some way! Now she was probably bugging it or something. Rochas had to get back to his house before she messed things up.

When Rochas got back to his house, he immediately entered and scoured the house, top to bottom, for cameras or bugs or anything of the sort. Fortunately, he couldn't find any, which meant that Henley was staying out of things for the time being. But then, he noticed something weird: the tube meant to hold cherries was now full with cherries in his exact shade of lime green.

Someone had finished the challenge for him.

Rochas didn't know what to make of this. On the one hand, he got points, which means that she helped him. But because he got points, he wasn't really rebelling now. So Henley had helped him and hurt him at the same time.

Huh.

* * *

 _Crixus Anjou, 18  
District Eleven Male_

* * *

Crixus was not what he would call a strategic person. Like, at all. So he decided that his best bet for this challenge was just to collect any cherry that was either his color, red, or rainbow. He'd finish eventually that way, even if it took him a while. The problem was that his color was blue, and there were at least three other competitors whose colors were somewhat close to his. So he had to be super careful to grab his cherries so that other people didn't mistakenly take his in place of theirs and so that he didn't end up messing anyone else up.

Crixus ran through the forest, keeping his eyes out for the cherries he'd need to find. Soon, he came upon a tree with three cherries on it: a red one, a bright yellow one, and a mint green one. Crixus grabbed the red cherry and ran towards the next tree. But before he could get far, he stopped.

Yellow was Alder's color. And that cherry was going to be way too high up for the tiny kid to reach.

Surprisingly unreluctantly, Crixus ran back to the tree, picked the yellow one and placed it on the ground for Alder to find. Couldn't make it too easy for the kid. Then, he was back on his way, on the hunt for more cherries.

As Crixus kept moving through the forest, he found himself subconsciously looking for both cherries of his own color and cherries of Alder's to help the little kid out. It was surprising to Crixus that he had this much empathy for another human, much less a small human. But he couldn't escape the thought of Alder needing to jump up to reach the cherries and being unable to reach. This way, the kid at least had a shot.

Crixus continued his path through the woods, collecting cherries and helping Alder. While he rarely thanked his parents for his genetics, he was lucky to have gained one thing from them: a nice, long wingspan. This allowed him to hold six or seven cherries in his arms at a time, severely cutting back on the time wasted by running back and forth to his house to drop the cherries off. Even so, he decided to wait until he'd come back three or four times to actually put them into the tube. It was after his fourth time returning to the house that he began to put the cherries in the tube, at which point he realized something very interesting.

He had not collected any blue cherries thus far.

Hmm.

Crixus decided not to think much of it thus far. After all, he already had twelve points from the twenty-four red cherries he'd collected. And it was highly unlikely that any other competitor had already finished. Now, all he needed to look for was… thirteen more blue cherries. That was less than half of what he'd needed to find previously! This couldn't be that hard.

Crixus decided to make a beeline across the Arena this time and search the other half of it. He carefully scoured the trees, and while he found plenty more red cherries, he neither found cherries in his shade of blue nor of Alder's shade of yellow. This led Crixus to believe that his cherries were centered in the area around his house. That would also explain why he found a bunch of Alder's cherries so easily: Alder's house was two slots to the right of his, so naturally the younger kid's cherries would be close to Crixus's.

Maybe he needed to look further away from his house. Crixus had kind of been running around the circumference of various circles earlier; maybe more of a diameter kind of thing would work better. Crixus began running in straight, radial lines just a few feet away from each other, but no matter how many lines he ran in, he couldn't find any blue cherries.

That was weird.

As Crixus paced a little bit to try to come up with a reason why he couldn't find any of his cherries, he saw someone in a teal shirt pass by. He wondered if she was facing the same problem.

"Hey! In the teal shirt! Sorry, I don't know your name."

"I'm in the middle of a challenge! What's up?"

"Have you found cherries in your color? Because I haven't."

The girl stopped. She turned around and made her way back towards Crixus. "Nell Edwards, Six Female. What are you saying about the colors?"

"I'm saying, I've scoured like, at least three-quarters of the Arena and I have found no light blue cherries."

"Interesting." Nell paused for a moment. "I want to finish the challenge for now, but meet me later tonight in my house. Seven-thirty. I have some information you might be interested in."

And with that, Nell was off, leaving Crixus no choice but to look for more red cherries. Or blue ones, if he was lucky.

* * *

 _Solomon Mikkelson, 18  
District Four Male_

* * *

If there was one thing that Sol was thankful for, it was that shamrock green was his lucky color. It was not quite green enough to really be considered green, but too green to be considered blue. That meant that, while some of the competitors were probably still trying to discern which cherries were there, Sol could quickly grab his cherries and run. Now, admittedly, part of that came from being an artist; recognizing slight differences between colors was kind of his specialty. But it was easier to figure out slight differences between colors when Sol was calmly sitting in his studio, not while running around in a forest trying to also calculate points. But that was why shamrock green was such a perfect color for this scenario – it wasn't close enough to anyone else's to be a problem.

And that was a blessing.

Sol decided that, because it was fairly easy to tell his color apart from the others, he could afford to only look for his color cherries. The risk paid off; in three rounds of four each, Sol already had half of his cherries.

As Sol scoured farther and farther away from his home, he suddenly came upon a cherry that looked different. Pulling it off of the tree, he was thrilled to discover that it was a rainbow cherry! Rather than collect more cherries, Sol immediately ran back to his house to figure out if using this was a good idea.

Sol knew that he couldn't waste a ton of time on this decision. If he was about to screw himself over, he would need enough time to recover. And really, six of the seven options would at least leave him with some cherries left. Sol was confident enough in his ability to get back from this that he elected to take the risk and put the cherry in the tube. At that exact moment, an alarm went off, and all of the cherries disappeared.

In retrospect, it would have been better to collect all of the cherries in his house first and wait to put them in the tube until he was sure that he had them all. Ruby never said that the points would count differently if he waited to count them, after all.

Quickly recuperating, Sol ran back out into the forest. He needed to figure out some intelligent way to collect the cherries. Sol decided that his best bet would be to follow the same path that he'd followed earlier to collect the cherries the first time. To his surprise, his instinct had been correct. Sol was able to quickly find the twelve cherries that he'd had earlier and get himself back on track. This time, he kept them in his house, waiting until he had a full 25 points to actually put them in the tube. He then continued on his search for the remaining thirteen.

The question now was whether or not to look for red cherries. Sol had lost some time; at this point, he needed to rack up points quickly. But, if he grabbed red cherries when he could be could be grabbing shamrock green cherries, that could be a pretty big waste of time. But at the same time, if it took him a while to find the shamrock green cherries, he could be wasting more time. Plus, the longer he waited to collect red cherries, the less likely they were to exist for him to take. So he needed to at least be keeping an eye out for them.

It turned out that looking for two kinds of cherries at once did speed things up. In what seemed like no time at all, Sol was already done. And he was winded. Sol headed over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, then chugged it like it was nothing. He walked around his house, pacing slowly to bring his heart rate down. Once he was satisfied, he made his way out into the courtyard.

"Hey, Sol!" called a voice. Sol looked over to the source and found Silas sitting there.

"Hi, Silas! What's up?"

"Come over here," they said. "I have a question for you."

Sol obliged, making his way over to the Career. "What's up?"

"Talk to me about training."

"Well, that's a broad question."

Silas paused for a second to reformulate their question. "Did you train?"

"I never trained," Sol admitted. "I'm a pacifist. Learning to use weapons was not something I wanted to do."

"And do you think knowing how to use a weapon would be of any help here?"

"Not in the slightest.

A small smile crept onto their face. "That's exactly my point. Hear me out for a second. I have an idea."

* * *

 **Well, there we have it, another chapter! Who do you think sabotaged Crixus? Was it intentional? Does Rochas have a reason to be suspicious?**

 **I don't have a ton to say about this chapter, other than we're getting pretty close to the… halfway points of the Events. Yep, halfway. These are going to be long Events, but I'm excited to be in for the long haul, especially with the story planned out all the way!**

 **See you next time, when we move on to another district! Any guesses?**

 **-goldie031**


	40. Where are the Instructions?

_Amazon Brown, 18  
District Four Male_

* * *

"Good morning, Lucy Goosey!" Amazon cooed to her daughter, who was happily babbling in her crib. "Are you ready for a super splendiferous day?"

"aaaaaaaaa"

"Oh, I'm so glad!" Amazon lifted Lucy out of her crib and held her straight up to the ceiling. "Who's my favorite little girl? You are! Yes, you are!" She pulled the baby back to her chest, giving her a big big hug. "Let's get you fed and changed and dressed and all ready for the day, OK?"

"aaaaaa"

Amazon was lucky that her daughter was sleeping for six-hour stretches. She could get by with six hours of sleep easily, especially with a nap in the middle of the day. And she also didn't mind waking up early to feed Lucy and to pump some breast milk for Lilac to feed the baby. That way she could do some work cleaning up the apartment and cooking for the day. Amazon was sure that she was the only competitor who was actually cooking, but she didn't mind; she got a lot of joy out of cooking and cleaning.

After feeding, changing, and dressing her daughter, Amazon got herself ready for the day, letting her daughter play on a very nice playmat the Capitol had provided. The outfit for the day was strange: a pink factory worker's uniform with the four seal in blue on the right side of her chest. Then, she quickly made some eggs for breakfast and sat on the couch to eat them to keep Lucy in her sight. After she was all ready, Amazon went back to do her favorite thing: play with Lucy. But she had to cut her time playing with the baby a bit short, because Sol had asked her to meet with him and Silas around 8:30 to talk about… something. They'd been a bit vague about what it was, but apparently it was something that would hit close to home. But, because it was before Lilac was set to arrive for the morning challenge, Lucy was going to come with her.

On her way to the courtyard, Amazon passed Myranda, returning to her own home. Myranda looked simultaneously thrilled and embarrassed, still in her outfit from the previous day and looking completely disheveled. Amazon knew exactly what Myranda had been doing the night before, and she just hoped that they had done it with protection.

Amazon made her way over to a little gazebo in which the three of them had planned to meet. After a few moments, the other two joined her. "Hey, Amazon! And hello there, Lucy!" Silas said cheerfully. "How are you?"

"I'm good. And Lucy is very good!" Amazon waved Lucy's arm, causing the others to smile. "What's up?"

"We wanted to talk to you about training."

Amazon felt her body tense up. She carefully handed Lucy to Sol, as not to crush the baby if she tensed too much; Sol took Lucy, sensing that something was wrong.

"I take it that's a sore subject?" prompted Silas.

"Yeah." Amazon took a deep breath. "What about training?"

"In a nutshell, we want to make training less weapon and Games focused and more… broad, to give Career district tributes a better shot in the Games."

Amazon nodded. "I would not object to that."

"Tell me about your history with training," asked Silas. "All three of us have had imperfect experiences with it, and I think the three of us working together together can make a big change."

"Well," Amazon began, "I don't think the training itself was the problem. My issue was that I didn't want to train. My parents pushed me into training because they didn't see motherhood as a legitimate career. And they just put so much pressure on me to train and maybe volunteer that I…" Amazon trailed off. "I had to move to Four to get away from them and to raise Lucy like I want."

Sol nodded gravely. "Well, with the training reforms we're hoping for, I'm thinking that we'll at least be able to take some of the pressure off of trainees. The idea is that we can work with the districts to diversify training and prepare kids better for the Events, as opposed to the Games. And maybe with that diversity in things that kids are being trained in, they'll be better off when they age out."

Silas added, "I have just been feeling so unprepared for the Events. I feel like there has to be a better way!"

Amazon smiled. "I don't know how much help I'll be, but I'm definitely down to try! I will say, though, I think it's hard to prepare for the Events. Because there are some competitions that there is no way to prepare for."

* * *

 _Serenity Capiere, 13  
District Eight Female_

* * *

Serenity had kind of… fluctuated over the course of the Events. Some days, she was feeling incredibly motivated to compete in the challenges. But some days, she really just didn't care. She'd never been forced to do anything she didn't want to do, and she didn't really want to do any of this.

Why put effort into any part of the Events? She wasn't going to gain or lose anything from _not_ putting effort into the them. She did have a good life at home, after all. And while finishing a competition gave Serenity a thrill, it was more frustrating for her to be unable to complete something. And she would rather not try than be frustrated by losing.

She'd never really lost at anything.

Losing was scary.

Serenity put on the uniform provided for her, then pulled up her blonde hair into a ponytail. She'd head horror stories of factory workers getting their hair caught in gears or other machinery and… well… Serenity was not ready to lose her hair yet. Then, she grabbed a water bottle and started to take small sips so that it could easily work its way into her system. As she sipped, she sat near the window, watching as some of the other younger kids ate breakfast together. There was even a pitcher of what looked like fresh-milked milk! They looked like they were having fun. Serenity really wanted to go out and join them. She'd never had friends her own age before, much less friends at all. But she was too scared that they wouldn't like her. That she would fail at making friends. She'd already failed at making friends once; the Careers didn't let her in.

It was the first time she'd failed at anything. Her parents had never let her fail before.

Better not to try than to try and fail.

"Good morning, competitors!" called Violet. "It's time to get ready for another day of challenge! If you haven't already changed into your competition outfit for the day, please do so now, and then make your way to Competition Zone Three."

Already dressed, Serenity made her way to the competition zone. Already, she knew that this was going to be a different challenge. The floor of the competition zone had been painted in twenty-eight wedges, one for each competitor, and instead of walls separating the competitors, there were inch-high barriers. In the middle of each section was a box. Serenity's was black with 8F on one side in big purple writing and the letters IKEA on the other. There was also a black toolbox for her.

This didn't look good.

"Competitors! Today we're going to be honoring our factory district, District Eight! Almost anything that comes in a box comes from there, making Eight one of our most versatile districts. We're so happy to have it in our country!"

Serenity still would rather be living in One.

"Now, this challenge might be one of the most difficult of the entire Events. In the boxes in front of you are all of the parts to build a chair. All you need to do is assemble it! The problem is that we forgot to include the manuals. The competition will begin when the horn sounds, at which point you may open the boxes. Good luck!"

Serenity instantly looked like a deer in the headlights. She'd sat in a chair before, but that was about all the experience she'd had with the construction of chairs. And she had no concept of how many parts this would have. Hopefully, this wouldn't prove to be too difficult.

When the horn sounded, Serenity tipped the box over so that the opening was on one of the sides, not on the top, kind of how you'd want to open a refrigerator box. Then, she dumped out all of the pieces. Luckily, the main parts of the chair were black. But there was this bag of screws and stuff that were plain metal, not to mention quite small. And the sheer number of parts…

And no instructions…

How in the world was Serenity reasonably expected to beat this challenge?

* * *

 _Sharen Cantiano, 16  
District Twelve Female_

* * *

This challenge was frustratingly overwhelming to Sharen. There were so many parts, and so many things that needed to happen, that completing the challenge would be almost impossible without some sort of a bone thrown to her. And while Sharen was still skeptical about the Capitol, she had a feeling that the Capitol wouldn't make this challenge completely impossible. After all, the scavenger hunt challenges would have been impossible if the Capitol hadn't either given them a geocacher or placed the objects they needed relatively close to them. So while the Capitol said that they weren't giving them manuals, logically, there had to be a way to do this.

Sharen emptied out the box, laying out all of her wooden pieces carefully. Then, she opened up her bag of screws and poured them out, not paying attention to one screw that rolled pretty far to her right. Figuring out the trick to this puzzle – because that's what it was, a puzzle – would require her to carefully and slowly analyze every piece. This was not something Sharen was used to doing; normally, she was much more impulsive. But she'd also developed a… competitive streak during the Events. And if this was how she needed to get points to win, to better her status in the district, that was what she'd do. Sharen was getting the feeling that the other competitors had lost sight of that goal. Making friends was great, and she certainly enjoyed spending time with some of the older girls, but if you lost sight of the fact that you were playing to win, what were you playing for? These friendships were, by nature, temporary. Victory was eternal.

Sharen picked up the large square of wood and turned it over in her hands, looking for anything that could help her out. She turned it every possible way she could, but nothing jumped out to her. She then did the same analysis on all of the other pieces of wood, but there was nothing remarkable about them, just what seemed to be the regular grain of the wood.

If the wood couldn't give her obvious clues, maybe the screws would. Sharen collected a few of the screws and looked at their tops. Looking at them carefully, she noticed a tiny triangle etched into the head of one of the screws. Another screw had a circle etched into the head; yet another, a square.

That had to be a sign.

Sharen opened up the toolbox and searched through it, luckily finding exactly what she wanted in it: a flashlight. She pulled it out and shined it into the holes drilled into the various pieces of wood. Lo and behold, there were little symbols there too! Slowly, she began to organize her screws and pieces of wood by those little shapes. Slowly, the puzzle of the chair was clearing up.

Sharen decided that the best strategy was to go symbol by symbol. She began with the triangles, collecting all of the screws and pieces with triangles on them and piecing together that section of the chair. Then she moved on to the circles, then the… well, she wanted to move on to the squares. But that corner of the chair had holes with two sets of symbols, squares and hearts. When Sharen pulled out the leg with the hearts on it and the leg with the squares, she noticed a slight curve on the seat. After analyzing the chair a bit more, Sharen realized that she had put the legs on upside down.

Damn.

Sharen unscrewed the legs she'd already finished and turned them around, then screwed them back on. Finally, once she was convinced that the two first two legs were on correctly, she moved on to the hearts. And that was when she ran into the problem.

The hearts pole had four holes in it, two for screws to attach it to the side of the seat and two to attach it to the… headboard. But Sharen only had three screws with hearts on them.

Where was the fourth screw?

Sharen stood up and shook herself out, to see if the screw had gotten itself in the pockets of her uniform or caught in a fold or something. She even did a quick forward roll to try to get it to fall out, but no dice. Then, she scoured the ground of her section, looking for a glint of metal. The pieces of wood blended into the ground a bit (why the Gamemakers chose to use the same color for everything, she didn't know), but in theory, the metal screws should shine in the bright and kinda hot sunlight. But no dice – no matter where she looked on her wedge, there was nothing that indicated any other screw.

Maybe she messed up on one of the other ones, putting the wrong screw in the wrong place; they all did look kind of similar. Sharen had no choice but to take the chair apart to find that other screw.

* * *

 _Sawyer Burns, 18  
District Seven Female_

* * *

Something about the box in front of Sawyer looked familiar. Like, really familiar. But she couldn't put her finger on it. She lived in Seven, not Eight; there was no reason for her to have seen a factory product like this one before.

When the horn sounded, Sawyer opened the box and began pulling out the pieces of wood. Then, she tipped it over to get out the screws and any other small parts that might be there. Once everything was out of the box, Sawyer began to organize her parts, sorting the pieces of wood by length. She was easily able to identify a few pieces: the seat, for example, and the big tall back part. The problem was that there were four legs and two sticks to hold up the back, and all six pieces looked the same.

Well, almost the same. Sawyer noticed that two of the pieces had screw-holes on their sides and the bottom, while four just had the screws on the top. So those four were probably the bottom pieces, but which one went where?

Sawyer took a second to look up and see what other people were doing. It seemed that nobody had any clearer idea than she did about what to do. That was, at least, a little comforting. Everyone was equally behind the eight ball, so to speak.

As Sawyer began turning the pieces of wood over in her hands, she suddenly had a flashback to one day, at home, before she became embarrassed by her mother. Her mother, unable to find a babysitter, took Sawyer to work with her, building some furniture for a middle-class family in the district. Mom had to build, like, four of these chairs. Did she show Sawyer how to do this? Sawyer couldn't remember.

If only she'd paid more attention to her mother.

Sawyer racked her brain, trying to remember as much as he could of that day. Honestly, she was simply impressed that she'd remembered it at all. Sawyer emptied her bag of screws and analyzed them, surprised that she recognized a few of them. She looked at some of the screw holes, then back at the screws, then back at their holes. Slowly, her mother's work came back to her. Sawyer basically ignored the weird shapes that were etched onto the screws and built the chair based on her memory which, surprisingly, worked very well. Sawyer ended up being the first one done! This was the first time that Sawyer felt that confident that she'd done really well, too.

If she could learn this much from her mother just from watching her once, imagine what she could learn from her mother if she really paid attention to her.

Sawyer intelligently decided to pretend as though she was still working to make it seem like she wasn't finished. This way, the other competitors wouldn't see that she had done so well. This was such a difficult challenge for anyone who didn't have some sort of clue from home, so she didn't want to mark her as a threat. But as she pretended to tinker with the chair, Sawyer looked around at the other competitors. Sharen looked to be doing pretty well; she was about halfway done and the chair looked right. But now she was panicking? And taking apart the chair? To Sharen's right, Aviel was working hard, but looked smug whenever he glanced over at Sharen, who looked frazzled. Sawyer didn't think too much of it; she hadn't spent a ton of time with Aviel, so she didn't know if maybe there was a rivalry or something? Sawyer decided not to think much of it.

Continuing to scan, Sawyer noticed that many of the other competitors were doing much worse than Sharen. Alder was literally trying to stick the pieces into each other without the help of the screws, and Lyric seemed to have put one set of legs on upside down and the other on the right way. And Serenity, wearing all black and working on a black wedge, was sweating bullets as she worked, not seeming to have made much progress. Sawyer's eyes scanned past Serenity, but a loud crash led her to bring her eyes back to the young girl.

"Medic! We need a medic!" Sawyer called, rushing over to Serenity's wedge of the circle.

The young girl had fainted.

* * *

 **So, what do you all think? Will our three pseudo-Careers be able to pull their plan off? What happened with Serenity? How about with Sharen? Is this challenge doable?**

 **Two important things. First: I am no longer going to be posting on the blog. I decided to stop posting because I don't like revealing when I move around scores for plot reasons and whose scores I switch around; imagine finding out that I've lowered your competitor through the blog! That would be quite annoying. So, that's the easiest way to fix it!**

 **Secondly, a note on my summer update schedule! You might have noticed that my update speed has slowed a bit over the past few days. That's because I'm currently in the process of stockpiling chapters so that there is not a break in updates over the summer like I had last summer while I'm away at camp. So, I actually already have two more chapters written! The update plan right now is to have the next chapter go out on Tuesday, then the next one on the following Sunday, that being June 17. Then, I'll hopefully update every Sunday thereafter. Bonus uploads will come along if I get another chapter done during the week, putting me above the total number I need stockpiled. And if I somehow manage to finish writing the Events, you bet that my update speed will shoot up! My hope is to get submissions for IDIDE2 up over the summer as well, so keep an eye out for that.**

 **Thank you in advance for your patience over the summer. See you next chapter!**

 **-goldie031**


	41. I've Got a Package!

"Mom, I really think you're overreacting," calmly said Garnet as he followed his mother towards the Gamemakers' center. "Myranda and Liana dating cannot be that big of a deal."

"Garnet, it really is," insisted the president. "You know how big of a problem it'll be if Dania Lidano ever meets Dania Kesten. It'll blow the whole Sami operation."

"No, it won't. Dania Lidano won't blow her own cover if we saved her. And Dania Kesten is involved enough with the government that she knows not to do it either."

"I'm just… incredibly worried about it. Imagine what happens if families of tributes find out about what we're doing – we've been doing it for such a short period of time that all of their families are still alive. They'll complain, and ask, why didn't you save our kid? And then they'll begin to rebel. I already have to deal with three different rebel groups, and I'm trying to fix things so that they don't have to rebel, and…"

"Mom, I've known Liana for quite some time as my niece. I can tell you that, if she is dedicated to Myranda and wants to be with her, she is not going to stop just because you tell her to. She's more rebellious than that."

"But I need to at least try. Garnet, so much is riding on this. What if one of them gets pregnant as a result of their sex?"

"Mom, did you hear what you just said? Either way, how do you know it's not a one-night stand?"

"I don't." The thought hadn't even crossed Ruby's mind. "But I need to be ready if it's not. Our mission cannot fail." Ruby ran into the Gamemakers' room. "Hey, Euodia?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have access to the geocachers?"

"Well, we store them under the Arena, if that's what you mean."

"I guess I mean," clarified the not-so-tech-savvy president, "can you send a message to one of the devices for me?"

"That's a good question for Marcella. Marcella!"

One of the newer Gamemakers brought on for the Events, and one of the youngest overall at just eighteen and a half, Marcella Dearman was still a bit afraid of not only President Emerald but also her fellow Gamemakers. Yet she was the one who was responsible for coordinating all of the technical elements of the Events, putting a lot of weight on her shoulders that she was shouldering quite well. Ruby knew that she'd made a good choice in her Gamemaker selection, and while she would have loved to move her onto Amethyst's team of Games Gamemakers, she knew that Marcella was an integral part of this small team responsible for the Events.

"Yes, Madam President?"

"Are you able to send a message to one of the geocachers that they're using for the afternoon challenge today?"

"Yeah, if you give me the text of the message."

"Can you send it without reading it?"

"You mean without me reading it? Yeah, I'll convert the file type. Do you have the text?"

Ruby handed Marcella the USB. Marcella darted back over to her station and plugged it in, then tapped a few buttons. "Whose geocacher is getting it?"

"Sage. But I don't want him getting it at the beginning of the challenge. Can he get it halfway through?"

"Sounds good! I'll have that programmed." Any other Gamemaker would have been suspicious of Ruby's intentions. But Marcella, being so young and so new, just assumed that either this was normal or that she didn't need to know any further information, a position which she readily accepted. (That was part of the reason that Ruby liked Marcella so much: she was both intelligent and didn't ask too many questions.)

"Um, Ruby?" Bellona said urgently. "Serenity just fainted."

Alarmed, Ruby ran over to Bellona's station. "Is there a team of medics?"

"I just dispatched them."

Ruby watched as a hovercraft appeared to take care of Serenity. "Someone tell Violet to tell the competitors to keep going." Once control had been regained in the Arena, Ruby asked, "Who had the idea to have the ground colored to match the competitors' colors?"

Shyly, Keshet Polk raised their hand. Just a year older than Marcella, Keshet, the child of the owners of a high-end clothing shop, was originally from One; her family had been instrumental in helping the redistricting go smoothly from inside One. A huge fan of rainbows, it was their idea to give each competitor their own color, and they'd been milking their colors for all they were worth. "I wanted to make sure they knew whose section was whose."

"Yes, but if you're Serenity, wearing all black, working with black wood, on a black surface, what do you think will happen?" Ruby asked gently.

"You're gonna faint."

"Very good. Let's not do that again, OK?"

"OK." Keshet looked a bit sad.

Ruby put a comforting arm around the young Gamemaker. "Look, dear, we all make little mistakes when we work on these kinds of things. The important thing is that we learn from it, OK?"

"OK."

"Now, let's make sure that Serenity is safe and that that message gets through to Sage, all right? Good work all around, though, team!"

* * *

 _Mallory Farro, 15  
District Eleven Female_

* * *

"How's she doing?" Mallory asked as she entered Serenity's house.

"She seems fine," Sawyer said.

"Thank you for staying with her after she fainted."

"I was the only one finished. It was the right thing to do so everyone else could."

"Do they know what happened?"

"The medics think it's some form of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Which makes sense, she was wearing all black on a black surface."

"So how come some of the other people with dark colors didn't faint?"

"I don't know."

The two watched as the little girl's chest rose and fell rhythmically. "She looks so peaceful when she sleeps," mused Mallory. "Like a little angel.

"Sawyer, you go eat some lunch. I already ate. I'll stay with her now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I can also grab some water or food here."

"OK. Let me know if you need anything. I'm two houses down."

Mallory grabbed some water and took a seat at Serenity's bedside, waiting for the young girl to wake up. After what seemed like an eternity, the young girl began to stir.

"Whe… what… did I win?"

"No, Serenity," Mallory said calmly. "You fainted. We think from heat exhaustion."

Serenity attempted to sit up, but found herself weak. She gave a little cough. "Can I have some water?"

"Here." Mallory gave Serenity her cup, then got up to get another for herself. "Take small sips," Mallory instructed. "It'll be better for you."

Serenity paused for a second. "What's your name?"

"Mallory."

"I'm Serenity."

"I know."

"Why did you stay with me? You didn't have to. I've never done anything nice to you."

Mallory smiled. "I like being nice to people. It makes me feel good."

"I never thought about it that way." Suddenly, Serenity was spilling all of her worries to Mallory, telling the older girl about all of her insecurities and her fears and her life story. "So I've never really had a friend," concluded the little girl, "and the thought of being rejected again makes me scared to try."

Mallory saw herself in the little girl, albeit in the opposite way. Serenity's parents spoiled her, while hers totally mistreated her. And yet, neither of them had any true friends. "Well, I can be your friend," offered Mallory.

"Really?"

"Yeah. You can hang out with me and some of my older friends. Would you like that?"

"Yeah," Serenity smiled.

The two girls talked for a while longer, until Ruby Emerald's voice piped into Serenity's house. "Serenity, this is President Emerald." Mallory instantly straightened up; Serenity tried to sit up but fell back again. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm all right."

"Do you feel as though you're able to compete today?"

"I would like to, but I can barely stand up."

"All right. We do not want to disqualify you because of your illness, so we're going to ask you to complete the two District Eight challenges during mid-day or at night on a later day, all right? Your time will be compared to the time of the other competitors."

"That sounds good. Is it time for the afternoon challenge now?"

"Almost."

Serenity paused for a moment. "Can someone come stay with me?"

"Someone should probably stay with her," Mallory interjected.

Ruby thought for a second. "We'll have the medics transport you to Amazon's house. That's where my great-niece Lilac is babysitting Amazon's daughter. Does that sound OK?"

"Yes."

Ruby clicked off. A few moments later, a man in a white suit came in and easily lifted Serenity to carry her over to Amazon's. "Feel better, Serenity," smiled Mallory, happy to have another friend.

"Thank you for everything," replied Serenity, using the most genuine tone Mallory had ever heard her use. Mallory watched to make sure that Serenity made it into Amazon's house OK, then made her way back to her own house to get some water and prepare for the afternoon's challenge.

"Competitors! It's now time to begin the afternoon competition. Please make your way to Competition Zone Four."

Mallory headed over to Zone Four, where she found the biggest warehouse she'd ever seen waiting for her. Looking down the line of doors, she quickly found her lavender one in between Kitt and Crixus. When she tried to enter the warehouse, though, she found the door locked.

"Good afternoon, competitors, and welcome to our afternoon competition! Before we begin, a quick note regarding Serenity. As some of you may know, she fainted this morning during the challenge. Serenity is expected to make a full recovery, as it was simply a case of heat exhaustion, but she was not feeling well enough to compete in the challenge this afternoon. She will be competing in this challenge at another time.

"Now, on to the challenge! As you know, District Eight has become one of the industrial centers of Panem since the redistricting. The many factories there produce a vast number of goods, and we need your help to ship them out! Today, you're going to be finding some of the packages we need to ship in this warehouse. On the inside of your door, you'll find your geocachers from a few days ago. You may use those geocachers to find your packages inside the warehouse. Then, bring them to the center and put them in the bin in your personal color. The challenge is just that simple. Good luck, competitors!"

* * *

 _Ventus Gorva, 18  
District Six Male_

* * *

When the horn sounded, Ventus threw his door open and darted into the warehouse. Immediately, he could tell that this would be a massive challenge: the floor-to-ceiling shelves seemed to go on for miles, and there were at least two levels to the warehouse, probably more. He was certainly glad that he had the geocacher for this challenge. That was probably so that the Capitol could spread things out a little bit more. Instantly, he knew that it would be crucial to pace himself during this challenge; this was a marathon, not a sprint.

Ventus noticed one key difference between this geocacher and the previous one: he could not control which package he went for at what time. Ventus was basically at the mercy of his geocacher to find the packages, unless he found other packages on the way. He didn't even know how many packages he had to find! The Gamemakers were really making this a stamina challenge more than anything else, Ventus figured as a way to level the playing field as much as possible. He was best off just following it and seeing how the challenge took him.

Ventus took a second to listen to the beeping, then began to follow the geocacher's hints. As he ran through the shelves, Ventus noticed that the vast majority of the packages were a neutral beige. That would at least made things easier for him to see his packages on the shelves. On his way, he passed a few other brightly colored packages, but they were few and far between; clearly, the Gamemakers didn't really want the competitors interacting all that much.

The geocacher led Ventus to the back of the warehouse, right near a staircase. The geocacher was still beeping pretty slowly, too slow for Ventus to be close to the package. But whenever he went in any direction from the staircase, it slowed down.

Nowhere to go but up, Ventus figured.

Ventus carefully climbed up the stairs to the second level. But the beeping still hadn't really stopped. As he kept going up, the beeping got faster and faster. It was a good thing Ventus wasn't scared of heights, because it seemed as though he was going all the way to the top of the warehouse. The geocacher then led him on a zig-zag pattern through the shelves until the beeping got really, really fast. He quickly looked around, then perked up as he found a grey package right at his eye level. "One down," Ventus murmured.

Now, to figure out how to move on to the next package. This one was nice and small, so he could probably carry it while looking for another one. Ventus fiddled with the geocacher until the beeping slowed down. He didn't know how he did it, but it seemed to be directing him elsewhere. That was a good thing.

After about seven or eight packages, Ventus found himself on the third level, hunting down a package among a number of oddly shaped packages. As he searched, he heard the sound of a little kid jumping. Curious, Ventus snuck around to see what was going on: little Chloe, jumping up and down to try to reach a package placed three shelves above her head. After realizing that jumping would probably fail, Chloe began to climb up the shelf.

That was not safe.

"Hi there," Ventus said, running over and plucking Chloe off the shelf. "Need some help?"

Chloe smiled at him as he put her down on the floor. "Hi, Ventus!" she replied brightly. "I can't reach my package. For some reason, the Gamemakers put it on that high up shelf."

"Well, that's kinda silly." Ventus easily reached up and grabbed the package, then tenderly dropped it in Chloe's arms. "Did they think you'd suddenly be able to fly or something?"

Chloe giggled. "I dunno. But thank you for getting it down for me!"

"You're welcome. If it happens again, try to find me, OK?" He gave her a playful little boop on the nose. "I don't want you hurting yourself by climbing on the shelves."

"I've already done it twice!"

That struck Ventus as very, very odd. But before he could ask her more questions, Chloe darted off to continue the challenge.

* * *

 _Sage Davidson, 18  
District Eight Male_

* * *

Sage peered through the packages as he watched Ventus help little Chloe out. For someone that tall and muscular, he was really being gentle and caring with her. And Sage knew that he wasn't done with the challenge yet. For him to take time out of the challenge to help out someone from another district? That was really special. But it didn't make sense! Someone who the Capitol made a point of keeping an eye on wouldn't just help someone out. (Granted, Sage had seen no particular reason to keep an eye on him this far, but he was just following instructions.)

Maybe he only helped her because they were originally from the same district! Ventus had moved from Two to Six a few years back. Perhaps he still felt some district loyalty to Two. No, that couldn't be right. Ventus was from One, not Two. It would make more sense for him to help Wins out than Chloe.

Maybe he was just an actually nice person? That was a solid possibility. Sage figured that the Capitol and Henley were just wrong about Ventus. He didn't want to break from his mission by leaving Ventus, lest Henley get suspicious that he wasn't really a spy. (Sage wasn't really a spy.) But he saw no real reason to keep tailing Ventus. Sage figured that he would just… put up with the mission, unless he received other instructions from the Capitol.

At that exact moment, his geocacher beeped wildly. Startled, Sage glanced down at it, only to see a transmission from the Capitol. To accept it, Sage clicked the big green button, then read it carefully from beginning to end.

 _This transmission will send twice._

 _-Start Transmission-_

 _Sage,_

 _As we understand, your mission to this point has been to follow Ventus. You have been doing a perfectly good job of it. However, a more pressing issue as unearthed itself, and as Ventus has not proven to be a threat, and because you are the only one who can tackle this problem, we need you to handle it._

 _Last night, Myranda Lidano and Liana Klepper spent the night together. While we did not watch what happened, we have reason to believe that they spent some amount of time performing intercourse. As we have discussed, should this relationship progress significantly, Dania Lidano and Dania Kesten may meet, and all of our cover may be broken. It is your job to make sure that they stay apart. You should do whatever it takes to make that happen. If possible, you should continue to make it look like you are competing in the Events for real, and also don't alert Henley to the fact that you are breaking from your mission. Remember, she believes you are another agent._

 _Good luck!_

 _President Emerald and Garnet_

 _-End Transmission-_

 _-Start Transmission-_

Sage carefully read through the entire transmission again, committing all of the information to memory. This was a tall order if Sage had ever heard one. He had barely finished his training in the Capitol before being sent to Eight, and while Kira had done his best to help him, she wasn't nearly as good as the team in the Capitol. And now, he needed to essentially complete three missions all at one time. Plus, he didn't have any way to correspond with the Capitol for advice without risking blowing his cover.

At least this gave him an excuse to not tail Ventus anymore. Now, though, he figured he should start tailing one of the girls whose relationship he was supposed to break up, so that he could figure out the best way to break it up.

The problem was finding Myranda or Liana. Sage had been tailing Ventus since Ventus came in; now that they were all scattered across the warehouse, there was no easy way to find either woman. Sage decided to just keep competing in the challenge – after all, he also had to pretend that he was actually competing while doing all of this other craziness. Then, maybe he'd find one of the two ladies on the way.

* * *

 _Nell Edwards, 14  
District Six Female_

* * *

It was just coincidence that Nell's geocacher led her to the third level of the warehouse at the same time as Ventus was there. She snuck up behind him as he watched… something. Then, Ventus jumped up and headed around the corner. Nell assumed Ventus's position and watched as he helped the little girl out, treating her more kindly than Nell had thought possible. This was certainly a departure from the Ventus she'd once seen getting into fights with bullies all the time at school. The Ventus who used to be closed-off and broody had become positive and helpful. Nell didn't rule out the possibility that he was putting on a face for the Capitol. But he probably wasn't pretending not to be mean. He was just pretending not to be insecure or sad. Maybe, if Nell tried hard enough, she could help him really not be sad, not just pretending to not be sad!

That probably wasn't how it actually worked, as much as Nell hoped it was. But she could try.

Nell returned her focus to the challenge at hand. She needed to focus on getting through this monster of a challenge. Already running out of stamina, Nell decided to pace herself a little bit to still be able to finish the challenge. She needed some sort of strategy; this clearly wasn't working.

Suddenly, Nell had an epiphany: why did she need to follow the geocacher? It would certainly be helpful, but it wasn't necessary in the slightest. Nell decided to forego the geocacher's help and began working from the top of the warehouse to the bottom and going methodically to each floor to hunt for her packages. To her delight, this strategy did speed up the process. While each floor was quite big, by going through the floors systematically, Nell was able to finish the challenge in about half the time that she expected to. Needless to say, she was thrilled.

After finishing up the challenge, Nell returned to her home to rest. She was really quite worn out! Running all over a warehouse, carrying heavy packages… Nell really just needed a nap. She curled up in her bed, and within minutes, she was out cold.

Some time later, Nell was woken up by very loud knocking at the door. Groggily, Nell got out of bed and shuffled over to the door, surprised to find Sharen and Crixus standing there. "Sharen? You know you're from Six, not Twelve, right?" asked Nell, confused.

"Yeah, yeah. Can I come in? I have to talk to you about something."

"Sure?" Nell, still orienting herself, stepped to the side, allowing the two to come in. "What's up?"

"Crixus told me that you noticed something weird about the challenge yesterday afternoon."

Nell nodded. "Yeah! I could not find any cherries in my color. And then I ran into Crixus," she indicated to the boy from Eleven, "and he was having the same problem. We talked about it last night but we didn't really come to any form of consensus about what was going on. I had an idea but Crixus shot me down."

"What did you think?"

"Well, I personally know that the Capitol has a spy in the Arena keeping an eye on Ventus, so he was someone about whom I was suspicious. And I also thought it might be Rochas. You know, because Rochas has been so adamantly anti-Capitol and so virulent. I have it on less good authority that there's a spy assigned to him as well because of his behavior. But after something I saw today, I'm much less confident that Ventus has anything to do with any funny business."

"What if I told you that both of your guesses were wrong?" Sharen suggested.

"Really? Who else could it be?"

"We think it's Aviel. He was right next to me today, and I was somehow magically missing a screw."

"And his district color is light blue," added Crixus. "Maybe he 'accidentally' grabbed all of the lightish blue cherries. That's how both of ours went missing, and I wouldn't be surprised if Liana's ended up missing the same way."

"Plus," Sharen chimed in, "I saw him 'accidentally' run into Silas during the Twelve challenge. And then he accidentally took one of Silas's items."

Nell thought for a second. "That would make a lot of sense to me. But we don't have any proof! As a journalist, I can't confidently begin to do anything against anyone without personally being sure that they've messed up. Libel is a serious crime."

"But if we can prove it to you, will you help us take him down?"

Nell thought for a moment more. "Yes. Yes, I will."

* * *

 **So, what do you think? Is Ruby right to overreact? Will Sharen's idea work? How will Sage do with changing the mission?**

 **I hope you're enjoying the story so far. We're so close to the halfway point!**

 **-goldie031**


	42. And Set This Dump Ablaze!

_Rochas Augustus, 18  
District Five Male_

* * *

Rochas had been paying attention during the challenges today. And they had pushed him over the edge.

See, in the morning, the Capitol had wasted an immense amount of resources on getting wood and other materials for the chairs. There was no way that someone would actually want a chair made out of bright green wood, and bright green was too hard to paint. But the afternoon challenge was even worse. How much was wasted by building that abnormally tall warehouse and creating all of those packages that would only be thrown out? In six challenges thus far, none of them had shown that the Capitol had any concern for their environmental footprint.

But it got worse. Now that he had noticed that Henley was following him, he was seeing her everywhere. She had tailed him during yesterday's challenge. She had not taken her eyes off of him during the morning challenge. And she had followed him yet again during the afternoon challenge, even though their packages were nowhere near each other. At this stage, she had to be after him. And Rochas needed to do something to stop it.

Who cared if he got another violent protest strike? Who cared if he caused any problems? Rochas was mad, because his voice wasn't being heard, and because the Capitol just wasn't paying attention to him.

Well, now they certainly would.

Rochas stepped out of his house and went into the forest to collect a few large rocks and branches. Then, he confidently strode into the courtyard and approached Henley's house. "Hey, Henley!" Rochas threw the first rock at one of the windows. It missed by a bit. "You think you can follow me and impede on my mission?" He threw the second rock, making contact with it now, shattering the glass. "Hey Capitol!" He continued to throw rocks and branches at Henley's glass, moving around the little house as an attempt to hit every window. "Do you think you can waste precious resources on these fucking stupid Events?" Rochas could only imagine how much he was angering the Gamemakers, and he didn't care. "Well, you fuckers, don't mind me. Because I'm going to burn your fucking Arena to the ground."

It was as Henley tackled Rochas to the ground from behind that Rochas realized that his threat to burn down the Arena was an empty threat. After all, he had no access to matches or a lighter.

* * *

"Well, at least Henley did a good job!" Violet said optimistically, watching the scene in the Arena go down. As soon as Rochas threatened to burn the Arena down, the Gamemaker team had sent instructions to the under-Arena crews and Peacekeepers to subdue Rochas. Luckily for her, Henley had gotten there first, with Aelyx for some backup, tackling the boy from Five to the ground. The rest of the Arena had since been put on lockdown. "She's stuck by his side this whole time."

"Yeah. I'm just happy we cut the broadcast and that nobody got hurt."

"And it's a good thing that we built a jail, essentially, in the Arena. So, what are we gonna do?"

Ruby thought, needing to quickly come up with a fair solution that would keep all of the other competitors safe. "This. Euodia, you're going to find another Five boy. Marcella, edit that clip so you can't hear the audio until that last line. I don't want to hear the cursing, but make sure to mention burning the Arena to the ground. Keshet, I want a mandatory broadcast ready ASAP. It's still only 6 PM – that's early for Reaping age kids.

"Bellona, you'll be my communications person. Please reach out to Portia and let her know what's going on. Have Desi to get in touch with the press and the Save Earth Activists, and have her get the appropriate people to prepare to show this broadcast in the Arena. I think that's either her or Portia's job. Also, please notify Watson and Petunia of what's happened and get them on a hovercraft to Five quickly. I'm going to go talk to Rochas and Henley. Understood, everyone?" The team nodded. "Go! Violet, come with me." And with that, the Emerald women confidently strode down the hall.

Euodia gave Bellona a frustrated glance. "What am I going to do about finding a Five boy? Isn't that a job for Amper? They're from Five."

"Amper is on their evening off right now. Remember? We all get one of those once a week?"

"Right. OK. How do we find a boy from Five?"

"Do we have access to the fairness council?" Millicent suggested.

"No, I'm sure the slips have been destroyed by now," Euodia said confidently, all too familiar with the trouble destroyed slips could cause.

At that moment, Bellona had an idea. "Well, we know some girls from Five, don't we?"

"Right! The Five foursome!" Euodia exclaimed.

"Well, two of them are here right now, though," Millicent reminded them.

"And Erin probably isn't the best bet either," Bellona admitted. "So we have Pandora left."

"She was supposed to mentor in the first place!" Euodia remembered. "I'm sure we can call in a favor." Confidently, she ran to a phone and punched in Pandora's number. (As the daughter of the owners of a major Five power plant, of course Pandora had a phone, and as she was once a Selection girl, of course Ruby knew it.) "Hello? Hi, Pandora! No, actually, it's Euodia. Well, I'm good. Yes, something did happen. Basically we need another Five male stat. Do you happen to have any boys that you work with that you could easily send over? You'll call some people? Great. Let me know as soon as possible. Awesome. You rock! OK. Bye." She hung up.

"So?"

"Pandora has a few boys in her gym that she'll call."

"Great! Now we have to figure out what to tell Ruby," Millicent said shakily.

"It's not like she gave us clear instructions in the first place. I'm just going to tell her the truth."

* * *

Ruby and Violet entered the high-security conference room and shut the door. A few moments later, the video conference with Rochas, in the jail cell beneath the Arena and flanked by two Peacekeepers, flickered onto the screen.

"Hello, Rochas. What do you have to say for yourself?" Ruby said sternly.

"I have nothing to say to you Capitol bitches," Rochas spat. "You have shown disdain for everything I and my group stand for. You ruin our districts, you ruin our country, you ruin everything! And if I'd actually had a lighter or matches, I would have burned everything in there down, the competitors with it. That would have shown you!"

"Actually, Rochas, that would have been a bigger waste of resources. Everything that we use is either natural trees, repurposed, or actually what we say it is, like the packages and the geocachers. I hope that 9,000 Panemians didn't mind their shipments delayed for a few… weeks. And we have already contacted the Save Earth Activists, who are disturbed by your actions and have revoked your group membership.

"Rochas, I hereby revoke your status as a competitor in the Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events, and assign you a statute for the entire rest of your Reaping age for vandalizing government property, violent protest, and endangering the lives of twenty-seven other children. You will return to Five and be placed in prison, where you can no longer cause harm to those around you. This is effective immediately."

Rochas was led out, cursing up a storm. But there was nothing he could do.

After a moment, the image on the screen shifted to Henley, standing in a specially designed video call room in her house and sporting a very black eye. "Hi," she said sheepishly.

"Hello, Henley. You have done a marvelous job. While I don't think that his motives were quite what we thought, you stopped him effectively nonetheless. Well done."

"Thank you, Madame President."

"We will be making sure to replace those windows. If you're nervous about it, feel free to choose another house to stay in for the night. Now, before we let you go back to the Arena, will you update me on your mission? We were going to do this tomorrow night, but as I have you here now, I might as well."

"Of course, Madam President, though I may have been more eloquently prepared for tomorrow."

"That is perfectly fine. I am catching you a day early, after all."

"So, as you know, I had been primarily focusing on Rochas, while Sage has been primarily focusing on Ventus. As far as we had seen before moments ago, there had been no funny business from either man. Obviously that has since shifted, but I have not seen any other evidence pointing towards any other sabotage.

President Emerald raised her eyebrows just slightly. The Capitol had evidence of someone sabotaging. "How has your partner been doing?" she changed the subject.

"Well, to my knowledge. We have mostly stayed away from each other as not to arouse suspicion, and while I have instructed him to alert me of anything suspicious or if anything changes, he has not done so. But I do not believe that people are aware of his role in the mission; if anyone knows of anyone taking part in the mission, I believe that they know about me and not Sage."

Aviel knew about Sage.

"Very well. What else have you seen during your time in the Arena?"

"I have been quite focused on my mission, so to be perfectly honest, not very much. As far as I know, nobody else has been making trouble. And it has been quite lovely to watch a few groups of friends form! The younger kids are quite adorable, and there is quite a nice cadre of older girls as well. Oh, and Kitt is with the older girls. The poor guy."

"Very well. Now that your mission to tail Rochas has ended, I advise you to keep an eye on others in the Arena to see if anything else is going on. Sage has Ventus covered well, after all, and I trust him to continue to do so. If you happen to notice anything else happening, feel free to phone into this room at any time. I will have someone from the group stationed here. Thank you, Henley, and well done again."

"Thank you, Madam President." The call disconnected. Instantly, Ruby's phone rang. "Hello? Euodia? You got one? Yes, I realize now that my instructions were not clear. Yes, the slips have already been destroyed. OK, that sounds good! Good thinking on your part. Sorry, I was a little frazzled. Yes. And he is OK with it? He kind of doesn't have a choice. OK, tell Pandora to go through with it. Goodbye." She turned to Violet. "Press conference, now."

* * *

 _Damien Colver, 13  
New District Five Male_

* * *

"Hey, Damien! How was trampolining?" asked his mother, Gaia, as the young boy came home from the gym.

"It was good! I'm getting much better at my flips," Damien smiled. "Pandora says that I'm showing a lot of promise! And that I'll be caught up to some of the really skilled kids my age in no time!"

"That's great, honey!"

"How was work, mom?"

"High school kids are high school kids," she lamented. "And everyone is super distracted with the Events right now so it's hard to do anything. Did you see they cut the broadcast today?"

"No."

"Yeah, they usually broadcast live during the day, but during a part of the live broadcast it abruptly cut to the studio. I wonder what happened.

"Well, we can't dwell on that now! Come and take a seat for dinner."

At that moment, the phone rang. After the redistricting, every house had been given a phone so the government could contact the residents easily. Damien picked it up. "Hello? Oh, hi, Pandora! Yes, my mom is home. OK, I'll give her to you now." He covered the mouthpiece. "Mom, it's for you."

Gaia took the phone from her son's hand. Damien only caught snippets of the conversation as he ate his dinner, but his mom looked quite concerned. "Uh-huh. Well, it would be quite an honor. No, we won't tell a soul. Thank you. Goodbye, Pandora." She hung up.

"Can I go play at Courtney's now?"

"How would you like to go on a hovercraft to the Capitol instead?"

"What?"

Gaia took a deep breath. "There was a training incident involving Rochas, the current… now former Five male competitor. Somehow Pandora was asked to find a replacement – don't ask me why – and she settled on you! So go grab something to act as a token and the hovercraft should be here shortly."

Damien was taken aback. What could possibly have happened to warrant a change of competitor? But this meant that he could go see the Capitol! The land of bright buildings and pretty colors. Damien secretly wanted to be a designer someday, and the thought of seeing real Capitol buildings excited him a lot. "Did they ask your permission?"

"Yes. And I said yes." Gaia gave her son a kiss on the top of his head. "It's a bit scary. But I trust that the president made the right call."

"Do I have time to say goodbye to Courtney?"

"I don't think so. Go put on something other than your gym clothes."

A few moments later, the hovercraft arrived. Damien, clutching his favorite notebook and pen, gave his parents a hug goodbye and boarded for the Capitol.

"Well, this has been a whirlwind," said Watson, thinking what everyone was thinking. "Hi, I'm Watson. I'll be your mentor, though that might not be such a relevant thing in these Events."

"And I'm Petunia, Five's escort. I need to take some measurements for you, so if you can just talk to Watson, that'll be great." Petunia whipped a tape measure out of her pocket and began to put it very random and seemingly illogical places on Damien's body.

"So, Damien, how are you feeling?" Watson asked.

"Confused."

"Understandable. Let me fill you in really quickly from what I know. I think there's going to be a broadcast but we don't have access to it because we're flying between TV signals. Rochas, the former Five Male, began throwing rocks at Henley Moriarty's house and threatened to burn the Arena to the ground. Ruby pulled him out of the Events because it endangered the lives of other competitors. And that's how you're here!"

"Will I be using Rochas's scores? I know from watching the Events on TV at night that he basically did nothing."

"Nope! You'll be competing in all of the challenges by yourself. We're working out a schedule with the Capitol right now, but basically they're making a special competition zone for you so that they can have all of your materials. But, you will probably do the District Eight ones with Serenity, because they don't want to take down and then bring back up that beast of a warehouse."

"Is she the one that fainted?"

"Yes."

"OK, that'll be fun! It'll be a friend."

"Correct. Do you have any questions or concerns about this whole thing? I know it came on very fast."

"I don't think so. I mean, it's so hard to tell. This all came on very quickly. Oh, I know. Do you know what challenge I'll be doing first?"

"I think the Thirteen challenges," Watson answered matter of factly. Before Damien could register his mentor's warning, he felt a needle in his back and the world went black.

* * *

 **25** **th** **Place: Rochas Augustus, District Five Male**

 **Well, that happened. Rochas's submitter wasn't really reading anymore, and as the story relies heavily on audience participation, they gave me permission to remove Rochas. I elected to do so because I felt as though I didn't have anywhere to develop him to, and because I thought his explosion would be a really good way to develop Ruby as a character. I had a lot of fun writing him for the time that I did, however, and getting to develop some of the fringe non-rebel groups in Panem was great! Thanks for your time, Rochas!**

* * *

 **So, what do you think of the chapter? Did what Rochas did merit his punishment? How will Damien fare? A bit more about this situation will also be explained next chapter, but do you have any burning questions? There's nothing like a fun twist to a story to throw readers off :).**

 **We have now reached what I think is our eighth check in point! For this check-in, please go back to your 7 favorite competitors. No other criterion! However, in an effort to get Damien into reasonable contention, for the secret word, please rank him on a scale from 1 to 5; those points will be given to him. You may choose to also rank him in your top 7 competitors, but you are by no means obligated to or prevented from doing so. By the way, I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but I've decided to double count the check-ins of submitters. The points used to rank Damien, however, will not be counted twice. PLEASE USE THE NEW LINK ON MY PROFILE.**

 **On a related note, if you are a submitter who hasn't sent in one or more of the check ins, I'm going to be sending you a quick PM either here or on Discord to check in on that. I know that there are a few of you who have been in touch with me with regard to check ins and reviewing the story, and know that your mental health still comes first! I'm not going to remove your competitors just because you aren't reading (and honestly, nobody else is crazy enough that Ruby would have a reason to remove them), but I want to know where y'all are at! I care about you :).**

 **All right, I think that's all I have. We'll move on to our next district on Sunday! Any guesses?**

 **-goldie031**


	43. It's Sabotage!

_Henley Moriarty, 16  
District Thirteen Female_

 _Evening of the District Eight Challenge Day_

* * *

Henley finished her conversation with Ruby feeling quite proud of herself. She had actually succeeded in a spy mission! She had saved her fellow competitors, and she had kept the integrity of the Events alive. Henley was incredibly excited.

After securing her video-call room, Henley emerged from her house to embark on a mission that Ruby had not assigned to her. That was quite unlike Henley. Being in SpOps, Henley was used to being given a mission and being expected to follow it to a T. Upon the completion of a mission, SpOps agents were either called back to Thirteen or reassigned a mission where they were. Henley had been reassigned a mission. But before starting it, the shred of compassion she had in her told her that she needed to make sure her fellow competitors were OK.

When Henley went to open the door, however, she found it locked. Right. The Arena was on lockdown. Henley would just have to wait to be helpful.

At that moment, an audio broadcast of President Emerald could be heard throughout the Arena.

"Good evening, Panem," Ruby said. "After our afternoon challenge today, this disturbing scene took place in the Arena." Henley couldn't see what scene they were talking about, but she didn't need to; she had lived through it, after all. "Rochas Augustus was seen clearly destroying Events property and endangering the lives of the rest of the competitors. As he was posing a danger to their lives, I could not, in my good conscience, allow him to remain in the competition.

"However, I recognize that completely removing Rochas from the competition would be completely unfair to District Five, as they will now have just half of the chance to win. So, I have randomly selected another male representing Five, Damien Colver. In the interest of having the best chance that he can to win the Events on his own accord, not influenced by Rochas, Damien will compete in all of the challenges, filling in those that he has not competed in yet in and around the rest of them. While I understand that this is not a perfect solution to the problem, as Damien already knows all of the challenges, will not be competing in them alongside the other competitors, and will be slightly behind on all of the audience vote components, I believe that this is the best solution that we can possibly have. Damien is now on his way to the Arena, and will soon join the ranks of the other competitors. We wish him, the rest of the competitors, District Five, and the whole country the best of luck as we approach the halfway point of the Events. Thank you." The audio flickered out.

"Lockdown has been lifted, competitors," announced Violet. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Henley instantly exited her house and ran to Luna's. She knew she would find a lot of the older girls there, and she thought it best to check in with them first. On her way, she checked in with Aelyx.

"Hello?"

"Hey, big military dude. Go check in with the male competitors and make sure they're all OK. I can't do all of this by myself. And you're government issued too."

"Got it," Aelyx said. He went right to Alder's house, while Henley went to Luna's and knocked on her door.

"Who is it?" asked Luna.

"It's Henley. Can I come in?"

"Sure."

Henley opened the door to find Luna curled up in a ball on her floor. "Luna! Are you OK?"

Luna weakly sat up. "Sorta kinda. But I'm a bit shaken."

Henley sat on the floor next to Luna. "What happened?"

"Fire scares me. After my house burned down once. We were lucky that everyone got out safe. But we might not be so lucky again."

"I understand that. And I know that this was a very scary experience. But know that President Emerald is going to make sure that nothing happens, OK? She genuinely wants to make sure that everyone is safe. So if you need anything, you know where to find me, OK?"

"Thank you, Henley."

"Now, I need to go check on everyone else. Would you like me to get someone to help you?"

"Maybe Amazon, if you can? Or any one of the older girls."

"All right. I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you for checking in."

"Of course." And Henley was off to another house.

* * *

 _Aelyx Stark, 18  
District Thirteen Male_

 _The Next Morning_

* * *

"Nell, where are you taking me?" Aelyx asked as the young girl dragged him across the courtyard. He was certainly glad that she wasn't shaken up by the previous day's events, as she was back to her usual chipper self, taking her partner-in-investigative-crime to… somewhere.

"To a meeting," Nell replied chipperly. "You and I have been working together, and I feel like it's my responsibility to keep you updated on this matter. Plus, you may be able to help us. You have connections! You have power! You have influence!"

"Fine, I'll come along." Aelyx figured this would help him learn a little bit more about Ventus, as well as about Henley's mission. He allowed Nell to escort him into her house.

"This is Sharen, and this is Crixus. The three of us are working together." The other two waved. "Have you been hearing about any weird thing where the Events don't seem to be going… fairly?"

"What do you mean?"

Sharen explained, "A few days ago, during the Twelve challenge, I noticed a competitor run into another competitor and steal one of his ingredients in the process."

"Then, during the afternoon Eleven challenge, I couldn't find any blue cherries," Crixus gestured to his shirt. "And neither could Nell."

"And yesterday, I somehow managed to lose a screw during the challenge even though our sections all had those little walls," concluded Sharen. "Clearly, there's something weird going on here. And we think we know who is to blame."

"I can guess too," Aelyx perked up. "Is it Ventus?"

The other three looked at each other. "We actually think it's Aviel."

"Aviel?" Aelyx replied, looking quite shocked. "That doesn't make sense. He's done nothing wrong, to my knowledge. He's just gone completely under the radar."

"Exactly. Because Ventus has been getting so much attention from everyone, Capitol and spies alike," explained Nell, "he's been able to go practically unnoticed through this whole thing."

Aelyx was skeptical. Just about a week before, Nell had been convinced that Ventus was a suspicious character. And Nell struck Aelyx as a strong-minded person, not likely to be impacted by others' opinions. So for her to be swayed so strongly by the other two was quite telling. "Are you sure? That seems to me like it's coming out of left field."

"I mean, obviously you haven't seen what happened," Sharen conceded, "but I have. and the three of use are pretty convinced. We really think you'd be a valuable asset to our team because of your government connections and the ability to read people you've gained from the military."

"I mean, thank you, but those two things are kind of more Henley's domain."

"So, will you join our team?" urged Nell. "If we want to stop him, we have to do it quick."

Aelyx had not seen a single challenge be sabotaged. And if anyone was to blame for doing so, it was probably Ventus, not Aviel, as the others suggested; after all, Henley wouldn't have been picked for the Events to keep an eye on Ventus if he hadn't had a reason to mess something else. But, Aelyx recognized that his only shot at catching Ventus was working with a group who had similar objectives. "I'm still not convinced that Aviel is, in fact, to blame, if challenges are being sabotaged at all. But, I will join you, on the condition that if Aviel is not actually the one who is sabotaging competitions, we find the person who is. If someone who is not a Gamemaker is actually sabotaging competitions."

"Fair," Nell nodded. "Sharen, what's our next move?"

"I think we need to figure out if anybody else has been sabotaged thus far. Then we can tell them what we suspect and maybe they'll help us," Sharen suggested. "So Crixus, maybe you can talk to Silas about it? I feel like you're the best bet to get them involved. And Nell, you should just ask around to see if you can figure anything else out. Use your journalism skills. Aelyx, if you're so skeptical about it being Aviel, why don't you see if you can spot someone else performing a sabotage?" Aelyx nodded. Sharen was doing a good job of utilizing all of their various skillsets. "Let's try to meet up tonight or tomorrow to exchange results, all right?"

"Should we be talking to Liana?" asked Crixus.

"He's too smart to sabotage her. She's in the president's family, after all."

"What are you going to do, Sharen?" Nell prompted.

"Me? I'm going to try to catch Aviel in the act."

* * *

 _Kitt Mosley, 17  
District Ten Male_

* * *

Kitt was not someone who considered himself to have fragile masculinity. He was rarely alarmed when he spent more time with people of one gender or the other, and enjoyed the insight that those who identified differently than he could provide. But, for the first time, Kitt was feeling slightly self-conscious about his spending so much time with all of these girls. For one thing, they were talking about a lot of things that he couldn't connect to, like dresses, and hair, and being victimized by the patriarchy. But more importantly, he just couldn't seem to get any of them to love him!

Kitt had already tried with three of them, and all three had turned him down. Sharen had done so in quite dramatic fashion, but Luna and Jess's more casual rejections had hurt Kitt a bit more. But Kitt wasn't done yet. There were still quite a few women with whom he could try to flirt.

Well, really, there were only five: Henley, Myranda, Liana, Lyric, and Mallory. All of the others were either too young, married, or had already rejected her. But five options was still really good! Surely, he could get one of them to like him by the time the Events were done.

Now, who would be his next target? Kitt scoped around to see what the five ladies were doing. Henley was eating on her own, a few tables down from him. Lyric and Mallory were sitting with a number of other girls, as they frequently were; this was the group with which he normally spent time, even though they were all girls. But where were Liana and Myranda?

At that exact moment, Liana and Myranda emerged together from Liana's house, smiling into each other's eyes.

Well, there were still three women with whom Kitt had a shot.

The question was who to try next. Lyric and Mallory were both just fifteen, which was a bit young for Kitt, but Henley seemed to be preoccupied with something. And between the two younger ladies, something told Kitt to start with Lyric. Instinct, perhaps, or some supernatural force. Whichever it was, Kitt stood up to join the table of girls. As he made his way over, however, the voice of Violet blared through the Arena again, instructing the competitors to come to Zone One. Kitt figured that flirting would have to wait until after lunch.

When Kitt arrived at Zone One, he understood why the competitors were wearing athleticwear. There was a giant conveyor belt running down the center of the competition zone; all around the perimeter were giant square bins in each competitor's color with specifically shaped holes in them. This was going to be quite the challenge.

"Good morning, competitors! Congratulations on making it to today, the halfway point of the Events. You're just over one week away from being able to go back home and seeing your friends and family! And know that you will be setting the record for most kids to come out of an Arena alive. So no matter how things go, that's pretty cool!"

Violet's poor attempt at a joke failed desperately.

"Before we begin, I would like to introduce you to Damien Colver, who will be taking over Rochas's slot. Today's challenge started a little bit late because he was completing the District Thirteen challenges underneath the Arena. As the president announced last night, he will be competing in every challenge that you have already completed over the course of the next few days, hopefully as soon as possible.

"Anyway, on to today's challenge. Today, we will be making our way a bit north to the central district of Panem, District Nine! We mean this both literally, as Nine is in the center of our country, both geographically and figuratively. After passing on its role as the breadbasket of Panem to Eleven, Nine took on the role of our country's transportation center. Every day, tens of trains and hovercrafts pass through or over Nine to transport people all over the country, stopping to refuel if needed and helping people get to their transfers. Nine also serves as the mail hub. All mail traveling between districts goes through Nine, even if it is only going to the district next door, as a way to ensure that all mail gets to the right place. As an aside, Nine has also done some of the development of transportation methods, but not nearly to the degree that Six did before the redistricting.

"Today, we are going to be paying homage to the streamlining of our country's mail service thanks to Nine. Remember those packages you found in the warehouse yesterday? Those need to be shipped out all over the country today, and it is up to you to help us sort them. The problem is that, after the challenge last night, the packages all got jumbled up with some of the packages in the warehouse that weren't yours. So, in order to sort them for send out, we need to be working with them in smaller batches. The packages will come down this long conveyor belt; all you need to do is take the packages in your color and place them into the bin! Now, each of you has a few decoy packages which will not fit into the holes in your bins, and a few holes that don't actually match any packages. Also, some of you will have packages that need to go in through holes on the sides of your bin, so pay attention to that. And be careful! This conveyor belt has been known to speed up.

"The challenge will begin when the horn sounds. Good luck!"

* * *

 _Aviel Nitsa, 16  
District Nine Male_

* * *

Aviel could not believe that the other competitors and the Gamemakers were letting him get away with what he was getting away with. Since he'd decided to sabotage people, he'd met absolutely no resistance. Either he was doing a really good job of hiding it, or people knew what was happening and weren't doing anything about it.

Sabotaging Alexei had been easy. Being in the same competition zone, it was a piece of cake for him to go to the same spot again and swipe a wire. It had been all too simple to take one of Alder's balls during the three challenge and run with it, effectively forcing the little kid to chase after him. Dropping it in a ball pit with other yellow balls was the icing on the cake.

Then there was the Twelve challenge. With so many plants, it was easy to run into Silas and accidentally pick up one of their herbs instead of his. Knocking a Career down a few spots in the challenge worth the most points so far? That was quite good. And during the cherry challenge, he'd gotten Liana, Crixus, and Nell by taking all of their blue cherries. What could he say? He thought he was supposed to grab his district color cherries, not his personal color.

And then the Eight challenges. He had been grasping for a screw while trying to hold the chair together and just happened to go over that barrier into Sharen's section. And the afternoon challenge? Well, Chloe was tiny. Simply putting her packages on the top shelf was enough to sideline her. He'd also taken the geocacher out of one of the packages for good measure.

All things considered, he would consider this first batch of sabotages a success. Now, he just had to keep this momentum going.

As Violet explained the challenge, Aviel scoped out the scene, specifically paying attention to the structure of the conveyor belt. There was some sort of giant contraption at one end, and a large receptacle at the other. It seemed as though the packages that the competitors missed would drop into the receptacle and be transported back under to come up through the giant contraption. From scanning all of the bins, Aviel noticed that, from where he was standing, he could see most of the other competitors, but he could not see who was on the other side of the contraption. Whoever had their bin directly behind it (or as close to directly behind it as possible) would be a great sabotage target.

When the horn sounded, Aviel instantly registered an additional layer to the challenge: There were three packages going down the conveyor belt at the same time. So if your package happened to end up in the middle row, you were going to have a heck of a time getting it. In the commotion of everyone jostling for position at the front of the conveyor belt, Aviel managed to sneak around to see who was right behind the giant contraption: Morrel. That would work. Especially because his color was not all that different from Morrel's.

Aviel ran back around to the end of the conveyor belt, noticing that Morrel was jostling for position at its front. In the process, one of his packages passed him. Aviel easily swept it up and hid it behind his station. Then, he returned to the conveyor belt to continue competing. The easiest way to handle things was to stay away from Morrel and hope that, as the little kid was being blocked out from the front of the conveyor belt by the older kids, he could grab Morrel's packages from the back of the conveyor belt and stockpile them a little bit. Not all of them, just a few of the smaller ones. Enough to really hold Morrel back.

As Aviel continued to execute his sabotage, he felt as though someone was watching him. He carefully stood, looking for who was looking at him. Unfortunately, it was Sharen.

Damn! Someone was on to him.

At this point, Aviel had already committed to a sabotage, so he decided that he just wanted to keep going with it. Aviel grabbed one of his own packages, then darted back to his bin to see what Sharen could see. Sure enough, Sharen was looking directly at Morrel's packages. But while she could have easily taken one to bring it to Morrel, or back to they conveyor belt, she elected instead to stay where she was. The two locked eyes with each other, then darted back to the conveyor belt to continue trying to find their own packages.

Aviel decided to lay off of the sabotages for a while. Maybe that would throw Sharen off of his trail.

* * *

 _Silas Rune, 17  
Capitol "Male"_

* * *

Silas had been making a big stink about fixing the training system. Their conversation yesterday with Amazon and Sol had yielded some good ideas about how to fix things; in some way, training had failed all three of them, and they were all motivated to repair a broken system. Especially with Academies in all of the districts, it was desirable to put effort into making Academies less about Games training and more about learning district specialties, or about getting a well-rounded education. And that was all fine and good. But the thing was, Amazon was right: there were only so many things that you could actually train for. This was one challenge that you couldn't prepare for very well.

Silas scoped out the conveyor belt to try to find a good place to stand. The risk of being near the end of the conveyor belt was that someone else would take their packages. Someone had accidentally taken one of their ingredients a few days prior, after all, and their color was precariously between Chloe's and Sinsya's. But everybody was so grouped up near the beginning that they would never be able to see their packages come out. And Silas didn't particularly want to fight with, say, twenty other teenagers for a spot at the front of the belt like piglets trying to get a spot at their mother's udders.

Maybe they could go underneath and get in between two of the three conveyors? No, that was impossible. First of all, there was no space between the belts. More importantly, there was no under the conveyor belt; the podium on which the belt was mounted stretched all the way down to the floor. So, needing to make a decision, Silas chose a spot smack in the middle of the conveyor, simply needing to start somewhere lest he miss a package.

Quickly, Silas understood how challenging this challenge could be. His first package to come down the line was a box. Silas, recognizing the color, quickly grabbed it and brought it back to his bin. But there were, like, seven square or rectangle shaped holes, and the box's length did not match its width or its height. So, Silas tried to fit every possible side of the box in every possible hole. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to fit in any of them. (They didn't realize that if they'd turned the box on a diagonal, it would have fit into a diamond-ish shaped hole near the center of the bin's lid.) As Silas was trying to get this one box in, they had a feeling that at least two or three other packages were passing by. Sure enough, as soon as they gave up, put the package down and turned around, one of his packages fell into the bin at the end of the conveyor.

Dang it.

There were two things that made this challenge easier for Silas. Their fairly good stamina was one of them; that helped them run back and forth across the Arena fairly quickly. The other was they physical strength. One thing that they did get from training was practice lifting things, and as some of the packages that they had to bring back and forth clearly contained rocks and only rocks, having that kind of strength was helpful. They had a feeling that the Gamemakers had chosen what to place in each box fairly; Chloe was currently carrying quite a large box to her station, but she didn't seem to be struggling too much with it. So it made sense that Silas had been given rocks in a couple of his packages. They were just… really heavy.

Silas continued to grab packages, bring them back to their bin, and try to fit them into the holes. Silas was generally pretty good at picking out which were their decoy packages: after all, none of their holes were star-shaped. But they were still tripped up by that first package; it was only after they had taken all of their other packages off of the conveyor belt and confirmed that none of the rest fit that they tried the diagonal option for that one. Silas was finally done, but they weren't too confident that they had done well.

Not that any form of training would have helped them.

* * *

 **So, here's the 9AM chapter! What do you think about what Aviel has done? How about the anti-Aviel squad? Will Kitt have any success?**

 **Today is the first of our weekly Sunday updates for camp! I'm excited that this story is now on a real update schedule. I don't have a ton more to say, so I'll see you next week!**

 **-goldie031**


	44. The Sound of Music

"How are we feeling?" Violet asked as she entered the Gamemakers' room after lunch. The Gamemakers generally nodded. "Good? Good. You should all be very proud of yourselves. The Events have been running smoothly up to this point, which is really excellent. And you handled last night with poise and grace. Have they filled you in, Amper?"

Amper Helix, the Gamemaker from Five, nodded shyly. "I'm not proud of my district. But I hope that Damien will be a better representative."

"I'm sure he will be."

"Have we been met by any resistance towards the Events as a whole?" asked the ever image-focused Euodia.

"Not other than from the usual sources. We do still have a little bit of work to do for the future, but for the first year, this has gone really phenomenally. Now, does anyone have any questions for me?"

"Well, I have an idea for the afternoon challenge today," said Didrickson Cartwright. The youngest of a whopping fifteen siblings, Didrickson was brought onto the team from Six for his incredibly competitive nature. After the incredible success of the afternoon challenge for District Six, Violet had dispatched Didrickson to find ways to manipulate the challenges into something to add another layer of competition. So this was probably a very good idea.

"Do share." When Didrickson told his idea to Violet, she broke out into a grin. "That's great! I'll check it over with Ruby, but that could be something we utilize more than just for this challenge. I wish we'd come up with it before!"

"There wasn't really another challenge to use it on. I'm glad you like it, though! Also, let me talk to you later about a way to avoid certain… sabotage problems. Ruby might not want to stop them, but I have a way to, from a game design perspective, prevent as many from happening. For fairness's sake."

"Sounds good. Anyone else?"

Another hand went up, this one belonging to Reed Masterson from Four. While he was certainly helpful in preparing all of the challenges, it was Reed's specific skillset that had made the morning Capitol challenge possible. "Should I begin in-Arena prep for my challenge?"

Violet looked at the schedule for the Events. "Yeah, today is probably a good day to begin. But don't forget to repeat today's songs later on. Any other questions? Nope? Good. All right, let's set the afternoon challenge prep in motion under the Arena. If you're assigned to a competition zone, pull up that camera. I'll go run Didrickson's idea by Ruby and then we'll get started!"

* * *

 _Damien Colver, 13  
New District Five Male_

* * *

Damien's mind was about to explode. He had already competed in three challenges that day, and now he would be doing another one! Luckily, he'd had some time to take a break, eat, and rest before starting the Eight afternoon challenge with Serenity; otherwise, he would not have had the stamina, physical or mental, to handle this challenge. Damien knew enough about himself at the tender age of thirteen that he was aware of his tendency to get overwhelmed very quickly. And he was certainly already feeling overwhelmed. Luckily for Damien, the Capitol had been surprisingly understanding. It was as though they understood that this was going to be tough for him, and so wanted to, as best as possible, allow him to succeed. Taking some time alone in his little hut had been just what he needed to recuperate. And now, he was ready to go on another challenge.

"I'm good to go!" Damien said to nobody in particular, knowing that there was a camera somewhere. At that moment, his watch gave him a very simple instruction: Go to Competition Zone Four. Damien obliged.

As he walked over, Damien took some time to size up his competition. He hadn't really spent a ton of time with them yet, or really any time, because he'd been doing so much with the challenges and whatnot. And the morning's challenge had just been complete chaos. So this was probably a better way to figure things out. One thing that he noticed in general was the sheer height difference between the male competitors. Most of the people in male slots were either small, being kids, or really tall. At five foot one, a bit tall for a thirteen-year-old, Damien found himself somewhere in the middle of the height, with the next one above him being the male or male-presenting competitor from the Capitol.

The first thing that Damien noticed was the group of younger kids, eating near some sort of cow. How did they have a cow? The kids seemed to be very comfortable around each other, and we eating and talking happily. Then there was a group of older girls, somewhere in their teens. Their conversation appeared a bit more subdued to Damien, but they still seemed to like each other. Not so far away was a table where a pair of girls were eating together. Maybe they were just good friends! Or they could be dating. But Damien didn't want to assume.

Then there were a few people that looked pretty suspicious. Damien had noticed them all come to the morning challenge around the same time, and they were now all spread out, talking to various people. Damien wondered what they were all up to.

When he got to the competition zone, he found another competitor approaching as well. "Hi!" he said brightly. "I'm Damien."

"I'm Serenity," said the other girl kindly. "It's nice to meet you! You're from Five?"

"Yeah."

"This must be a whirlwind for you," Serenity remarked.

"That's one way to put it," he smiled.

Suddenly, Violet's voice emanated from the warehouse, explaining the challenge to the pair. "The clock will begin when you enter the warehouse. Good luck!"

Serenity made a motion to enter. But before she could, Damien called, "Wait! Serenity! I have an idea."

"Hm?"

"This warehouse is huge. Like, absolutely giant. We'll both finish faster if we help each other out."

"How do you suggest?"

"What's your color?"

"Black."

"Mine's lime green, Rochas's old color. I'll start from the top of the warehouse and work my way down, looking for both of our packages. You start from the bottom and work your way up. Ignore the geocachers. We'll pick a staircase and place all of our packages on each level by it, then bring them all down to our bins together. Sound good?"

Serenity narrowed her eyes. "Why do you want to work with me? You just met me."

"Because we both want to score high, right?"

"Yeah."

"If we work together and each only have to traverse half of the warehouse, we're both guaranteed to do better because it'll preserve our stamina. Plus, if you have any big packages, I can help you get them down and vice versa."

"But you don't know me."

"And you don't know me," Damien volleyed. "But if we both trust each other here, we'll both do better."

"You know, that actually sounds like a really smart idea. I'm in."

"Awesome. First we'll find a staircase that will be our staircase. Then, I'll start from the top and work my way down and you start from the bottom and work your way up. We should be finished in no time, giving us more time to rest before this afternoon."

"Sounds good! Let's do this."

* * *

 _Liana Klepper, 16  
District Nine Female_

* * *

Liana was still riding on a high from her intercourse with Myranda. She had never gone for something herself and then attained it; being the daughter of her mother, everything had been at her fingertips from a fairly young age. So to actually have to work for something and then succeed at it made her incredibly happy. It was a feeling she'd never felt before.

The odd thing was, Myranda hadn't talked to her since they'd done it. You would think that, if she'd enjoyed it, she would have said something. (Not that Liana had ever had sex before, but she kinda just figured.) But no. Liana had basically gotten the silent treatment. Myranda hadn't come to eat any meals with her or anything, even though Liana had been eating on one of the picnic tables in the courtyard. She hoped that she hadn't messed anything up. After such an incredible night, she really didn't want to lose Myranda.

Liana opened her door and looked directly across the circle at Myranda's house, trying to see if she could spot the girl in there. And there she was, slightly silhouetted, pacing back and forth in the front room of her house.

She was even gorgeous when you couldn't see her features. Liana had, simply, completely fallen for Myranda.

While Liana wanted to talk to Myranda about what was going on, she was honestly a bit too scared to do so. She knew she would need to do so eventually, but for now, it was better to let Myranda have her space. But, before she could really put a lot of thought into what was going on, Violet's voice echoed through the Arena, indicating that it was time to begin the challenge.

"Good afternoon, competitors! It is time to begin the afternoon challenge. You will be competing individually, but due to the size of this challenge, we will be dividing you into competition groups. Your group number directly corresponds to the competition zone you should go to.

"Group One is Serenity, Aelyx, Rochas, sorry, Damien, Alder, Silas, Solomon, and Morrel. Group Two is Winsley, Luna, Myranda, Nell, Henley, Sinsya, and Aviel. Group Three is Ventus, Ramona, Jessamine, Amazon, Mallory, Sage, and Lyric. And Group Four is Sharen, Alexei, Liana, Kitt, Crixus, Chloe, and Sawyer. Please make sure that you are dressed in your athleticwear for this challenge. You will receive further instructions when everyone has arrived at their zones."

Liana, still dressed appropriately from the morning challenge, headed due west to Competition Zone Four. When she arrived, Liana understood why the competition had to be divided into groups. The scope of this competition was definitely the biggest of any of the competitions thus far, and maybe even the biggest of any during the Events. On one end of the zone were seven bins in the colors of the seven competitors in her group: sky blue for her, green for Sharen, orange for Alexei, dark green for Kitt, baby blue for Crixus, red for Chloe and, and purple for Sawyer. On the other end were fourteen bins, one in each district's color. In between were obstacles of various shapes and sizes: giant rope nets, tall poles, fences, the works. Clearly, this was going to be a physically demanding challenge.

"All right, everyone! Are you ready to help us get these packages shipped out? We hope so, because we are on quite the time crunch! You all helped us to sort the packages into bins yesterday, but today, we need to sort them by district. So, one by one, you're going to take a package from your bin and bring it through the obstacle course to the appropriate district's bin over there. By looking at the package, you will be able to tell which district it should go to. Just make sure to read everything and look at all of the sides.

"Now, because this is the first challenge we've run in competition groups like this, we have one little twist to introduce. While you will be scored individually, if your team is the first to have everyone finish, you will all be moved up one spot in the final rankings. So, it's up to you, if you finish, whether or not to help out the other people in your competition group or keep to yourself. And, as usual, we will not be telling you your final placement, so it's possible that, if you don't help out the others in your group, you yourself will end up moved down a spot or two.

"The challenge will begin when I sound the horn. Good luck!"

Liana scoped out the other people in her group. She couldn't tell if they were the kind of people to help each other out or to leave each other out for blood. She'd just have to wait and see.

The horn sounded, and the challenge was on.

* * *

 _Lyric Cloud, 15  
Capitol Female_

* * *

Exhausted, Lyric walked with Mallory, Amazon, and Jess back from the competition zone. She was thrilled to have been in a group with three of her friends, because it meant that they were all invested in helping each other. But Lyric was also convinced that her group was randomly generated, and not only because she figured that the Gamemakers would try to avoid putting friends together. After all, if the Capitol was interested in fairness, there was no way that her group would have been intentionally grouped together, because the number of oversized and really heavy packages in her group was unbelievably high. By about halfway through the challenge, they'd gotten all of their light packages through the obstacle course. But then they'd started needing to work in pairs or threes to get the packages across. Plus, some of the packages were really hard to determine which bin they went into, and Mallory and Ventus had each accidentally left one of her packages in their bin until the end. So, all in all, this challenge did not go all that well.

Lyric hoped another group had done worse.

"Are you guys coming over for dinner tonight?" Amazon asked.

"Oh, right, that's tonight!" Jess smiled. "Yeah, I'll be there."

"I'm excited to learn to cook from you," smiled Lyric.

"Why don't we all shower and stuff and then meet up?" Amazon suggested. "That was a heck of a challenge."

"Sounds good!" said Lyric.

"Do you mind if I bring a friend?" Mallory asked. "She's been having trouble making other friends and I want to show her that it's easier than she thinks."

The other three girls looked at each other. "Sure, why not?" Amazon concluded. "The more the merrier."

"Thanks! I'll bring her over once she's done." The four separated to shower and change.

After Lyric was done getting ready, she went back over to Amazon's house. On the way, she ran into Kitt. "Lyric!"

"Oh, hi, Kitt. How are you?"

"I'm quite good. How are you, Lyric?"

"Good, thank you," replied Lyric curtly.

"Are you doing anything for dinner tonight?"

"I actually have to go," Lyric replied. She wasn't particularly interested in dealing with Kitt.

"Oh. Well, what about tomorrow?"

"I dunno. We'll have to see." She quickly went into Amazon's house. Amazon and Jess bustling in the kitchen, preheating burners and whatever. "Ready to help!"

"Hi, Lyric! How comfortable do you feel with knives?"

"You mean to cut food up? I can do that."

"Good." Amazon took some carrots out of the fridge. "I already washed these, just cut them into ribbons. Jess is scrubbing the potatoes. I'll handle the chicken." And with that, the cooking brigade began. Amazon was clearly comfortable in a kitchen because she was able to expertly organize her less culinary friends to cook efficiently.

A little bit later, Sawyer and Luna arrived. "Thank you so much for organizing this, Amazon!" gushed Sawyer. "It's so nice to have some home cooked food for once."

"No problem! My parents don't get how this is possible, but I actually really enjoy cooking."

"Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Why don't you set the table?"

"Sure! Do you know where the dishes are?"

"No."

Six cooks were quite a lot in the kitchen, but Amazon expertly managed her sous chefs so that they weren't spilling burning water or hot food all over each other. Just as everything was finished, Mallory entered with her friend. "Hi, guys! This is Serenity." The little girl from Eight gave a slight wave.

"Hi Serenity! I'm Lyric. It's nice to finally talk to you!"

"You as well."

As the girls ate, Lyric made an extra effort to talk to Serenity. Everything about the girl's body language indicated that she didn't feel like she fit in, a feeling that Lyric was all too familiar with. Growing up, she had always put so much effort into fitting in that she felt that she lost herself. Something about being with a group of girls that she would probably never see again made Lyric much more comfortable in her own skin. And if Lyric had gone through that kind of personal growth, maybe Serenity could too.

Suddenly, midway through dinner, something blasted through the Arena. "What's that?" asked Lyric.

"What do you mean?" asked Amazon.

"Listen."

 _Night time sharpens, heightens each sensation  
Darkness wakes and stirs imagination  
Silently the senses abandon their defenses  
Helpless to resist the notes I write  
For I compose the music of the night_

"Oh, now I hear it!" exclaimed Mallory. "I wonder what that's about," she mused.

"Yeah," echoed Serenity. "I doubt the Capitol would just randomly play a song. There's been no music thus far in the Arena."

"Maybe it's for a challenge?" suggested Sawyer.

"That would make sense," smiled Jess.

"Yes, quite a lot of sense," added Lyric.

"But what challenge could it be?"

* * *

 _Winsley Vwystrom, 13  
District One Male_

* * *

"MOOOOO."

"So, tell us about yourself, Winsley," urged Ramona as she milked Milky White. "I want to know all about your life back home!"

That was a tall order. "Like, what parts of my life?"

"Whatever you want to tell me."

Winsley debated what to share, eventually deciding not to do anything too sad. "Well, I'm adopted. I don't know much about my mom, but I wonder what she did that caused me to be born with deformed legs. They were amputated when I was… five, I think? Five. And then I got prosthetics!" Winsley proudly showed off his legs. "I tend to grow out of prosthetics kinda quickly, though, because I am growing. These are actually not my newest pair; I got those just before I left. I started dance lessons really close to the time that I got prosthetics which helped me learn balance and stuff."

Ramona stopped milking. "Ooh, you dance?"

"Yeah! That and play floorball. But dance is way more fun."

"Do you think you could teach me how to dance?"

"Maybe. I've never tried to teach anyone to dance before.

"But you can try!" Ramona jumped up. "Please?"

"OK, but wash the milk off of your hands first."

Ramona ran into Chloe's house. A few moments later, she emerged again, drying her hands with a paper towel. "Let's go!"

"Do you guys want to learn too?" Winsley asked the other kids.

"I'd like to," smiled Chloe.

"I'll join!" Alexei said.

"We'll watch," Sinsya smiled gently, speaking for herself and Morrel. Alder was too busy running around the courtyard.

"OK. So let's pair up. I'll be with Chloe, and Ramona, you'll be with Alexei. We'll start with the waltz because that's the easiest for me to teach you.

"So in the pair, one person should choose to be the leader and one person the follower. Traditionally, the male-identifying person is the leader, but if you would like to do something else, feel free." Winsley watched as Alexei took on the leader role in his pair. "All right. So first, the frame. The leader should put their left hand up like this and their right hand underneath the shoulder blade of the follower. Is it OK if I put my hand on you, Chloe?"

"Yes."

Winsley carefully and delicately placed his hand in the appropriate place on Chloe's back. "And then, the follower should place their left hand on the shoulder of the leader, resting their elbow on the right arm of the leader. Yes, like that! Very good. And then the follower will also take their right hand and join it in the hand of the leader." Winsley broke his frame to fix Ramona and Alexei's, then returned to his and Chloe's. "Good! The last part of the frame is to make sure that you are keeping your posture. So, chest up! Very good.

"Now that we have the frame down, we'll begin with the steps. The key to the waltz is not to break your frame or posture while doing the steps, so be careful. Oh, maybe I should have shown you this first." Winsley broke frame again. "So the basic step is, front with your right, side, together, back with your left, side, together. Got that?"

Ramona and Alexei tried to replicate the steps while still in hold but ended up repeatedly banging into each other. "Nope!" Alexei admitted.

"OK, here, let me show you." Winsley broke hold again. "Come out of hold and follow me." He demonstrated the steps for his friends and helped them feel comfortable with them. "Awesome! Now get back in hold.

"The key to a waltz is that the leader and the follower kind of mirror each other. So if you're the leader you're going to start by stepping forward with your right foot, and if you're the follower you'll start by stepping backwards on your left foot. Yeah! Then step to the side of your free leg, and together. Now do the opposite."

"This is quite intuitive," Alexei noticed.

"Correct! As my dance teacher once told me, dancing is just shifting your weight."

The four kept on practicing the steps for a little while. For someone who had never taught before, he was surprised by how well he was able to teach the others what to do. That was a skill that Wins didn't know he had. It was cool to learn more about yourself, especially because he didn't have to worry about dying too.

"I think we've basically got this under control, yeah?" said Winsley after a while.

"Yeah! Dancing is fun," smiled Ramona.

"Now all we need is music."

At just that moment, another song blasted across the Arena.

 _Hello, Young lovers whoever you are  
I hope your troubles are few  
All my good wishes go with you tonight  
I've been in love like you  
Be brave, young lovers, and follow your star  
Be brave and faithful and true  
Cling very close to each other tonight  
I've been in love like you_

"Perfect! It's even in waltz time," smiled Winsley. "Chloe, may I have this dance?"

"Of course."

And so, the four young lovers danced the night away, their only spectators Sinsya, Morrel, and a slightly confused cow.

* * *

 **Hello everyone! It's been a while in my eyes, but probably not so long in yours; that's just because camp is very busy. What do you think of the chapter and of Damien? Are Liana's thoughts legit? What was the cutest part of the chapter?**

 **Please make sure that, if you have not completed the previous check ins, to do so! If you have a question about that feel free to let me know. I'll see you next week for another district's chapter! Any guesses?**

 **Have an awesome week!**

 **-goldie031**


	45. Between the Chaos and Confusion

_Crixus Anjou, 18  
District Eleven Male_

* * *

Crixus was surprised by his motivation over the past week. This was the first time that he'd ever had this much motivation for something all at once. And to be perfectly honest, he couldn't quite figure out why. It wasn't like there was anyone at home whose life stood to be made better by his victory. And Crixus had never been a particularly competitive person, so he didn't think that there was just some magical new competitive streak that had appeared. Something had to have happened to cause the generally slothful and uncaring Crixus to participate in the challenges. Regardless, Crixus kind of liked feeling energized. It was a new feeling for him.

The question was whether he could maintain it.

Crixus wasn't holding his breath.

Not having had time the day before, Crixus prepared to begin his mission: talking to Silas. He hadn't interacted with the Career boy the day before, but he knew that having a big-name ally working to help take down Aviel would probably be good. And what bigger name would there be than a Capitol competitor? Especially one who had already been wronged.

Crixus wandered through the courtyard area until he found Silas talking with a couple of other people. As far as Crixus knew, they weren't in the middle of too important of a conversation, or at least one that couldn't wait a few minutes. Crixus's problem was an immediate problem; there was no way that theirs was immediate as well.

Cautiously, Crixus approached the three competitors. "Hello. Would you mind if I spoke to Silas for a moment?"

Silas glanced at their companions. "Sure. We can call it a day for today," they concluded. "I feel like we're just talking around in circles."

"I agree, to be honest," said Sol. "We should pause for now and figure out something more concrete before we come back together. But either way, there's not much else we're going to be able to do before we get back to the Capitol."

"And I need to go bring Lucy back home," Amazon chimed in.

"So we'll talk later this week. See you guys!" smiled Silas. They nodded to Crixus, and the two began to walk deeper into the forest.

"What were you guys talking about?" Crixus asked.

"We're working on some stuff with training," Silas explained vaguely. "So, Crixus, what's up?" they changed the subject.

"Well," Crixus began intelligently. "Have you noticed anything strange happening in the Events?"

Silas thought for a second. "Honestly, not really," they responded.

"Are you sure?"

"If you're asking me, then no. Do share with me what is actually happening."

"Well, there are a group of us who strongly believe that someone has been sabotaging the Events."

Crixus watched the gears begin to turn in Silas's head. "A Gamemaker?"

"Oh, no. A competitor."

"So, why are you telling me?"

"Well, we want a big name on our side," responded Crixus. "Especially someone who has been sabotaged by this competitor."

"What? When was I… how was I…"

Now their gears were really turning. Crixus watched as Silas tried to piece things together. "Remember during the Twelve morning challenge when…"

"…when Aviel ran into me," finished Silas. "But how could you tell? How did you know? Is it actually him?"

"Well, I didn't see it. But Sharen did," finished Crixus, having led Silas into a clearing in which Sharen was waiting.

"Yep," Sharen jumped in. "I saw everything. That one plant you were definitely missing? Aviel had taken it when you two collected each other's ingredients."

"So that's where it disappeared to…" Silas murmured.

"Correct." Sharen let the news sink in for a moment. "So, we're looking to stop the sabotages and make things right so that nobody can mess things up for the rest of us. Are you in?"

Silas debated for a moment. "Yeah. And I can probably get two more people to help."

"Excellent." Crixus and Silas sat down. "Everyone else should be here in a minute and we'll catch you up, Crixus."

After a few moments, Aelyx and Nell appeared in the clearing, with another kid close behind. "Hi, guys! This is Morrel." Morrel gave a shy wave. The three sat down, completing the circle.

"So, Nell, how did your mission go?"

"Well, I didn't get to talk to everyone. I started with the oldest competitors and moved down. But with the challenges and whatever it took me a while. I basically totally ignored Liana, because there is no way that Aviel would sabotage the President's niece, and I haven't done Ventus yet. Or Henley. She seemed like she was dealing with the Rochas mess. I also didn't have enough time to get to the twelve and thirteen-year-olds, but Morrel was pretty sure that something was up, even if he wasn't exactly sure _what_ was up."

"Yeah," Morrel chimed in. "It took forever to find my packages during that conveyor belt package. That just… struck me as very odd."

"Well, buckle up, my friend," smiled Sharen. "Let me fill you in, and then we'll start coming up with a plan for how to stop it."

* * *

 _Amazon Brown, 18  
District Four Female_

* * *

Amazon returned home from her meeting with the other Careers (how she despised using that name, but it was the only one that made sense). Sol was right; they really weren't making any progress. And while Amazon felt motivated to help fix the problem, she really needed a more precise task, one that could be done while she was at home taking care of the house and the baby. That was what she enjoyed doing, after all, and while she fully understood the magnitude of the situation, she was much more interested in doing things that she enjoyed now that her parents couldn't stop her, rather than dwell for too long on a past that she honestly didn't want to remember.

When she got home, Violet's daughter Lilac was waiting for her. "Hi, Lilac! How are you today?"

"Doing well," she smiled.

"Got any exciting schoolwork for today?"

"I mean, not really. I always Skype in with my tutor while I'm working with Lucy."

"Were you always homeschooled?"

"Yes. Well, for high school, at least. It is just easier when you're doing a lot of government duties to be homeschooled."

"Do you want to be doing government duties, though?"

"You know, I haven't decided quite yet. But I like to sort of try at least. It's kind of like taking on the family business, you know? And government doesn't meant that I need to be a Gamemaker. I could be a Capitol representative in the districts. That would be cool."

"That would be cool. OK, well, I leave you with Lucy. Have a good day, lovebug!"

"Say bye-bye to Mommy!" Lilac made Lucy's hand wave a little bit. The baby gave her mom a big smile as Amazon left the house.

As she made her way to the courtyard, Amazon heard yet another song play.

 _Let's spread our wings now  
Do anything now  
Somehow we came this far  
I've got a choice now  
I hear your voice now  
Singing inside my heart  
Let's spread our wings now  
Into the sky now  
Let's reach up to the sun  
Soon we will see we're  
Living the dreams of  
Our generation_

These songs were really throwing her off. But, as they'd determined the day before, if they were playing in the Arena, they had to be important. Amazon attempted to remember its words as she took a seat at a table in the courtyard, waiting for the challenge to begin.

"Um, Amazon?" she heard a small voice in her ear.

Amazon looked to her side to find the little boy from Three standing at her side. "Hey, Alexei. What's up?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Come sit."

Alexei took the chair next to Amazon. "So, you have a boyfriend, right?"

"Well, we're married. But yes. I know what you mean," Amazon smiled.

"Do you have trouble sometimes being in a relationship publicly?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, last night, something happened with me and this girl. And it felt really really special. Like, we've been flirting with love for a while but last night I felt it. I really felt it! But… I don't know what'll happen if I say that I love her."

"Well, why are you scared?"

"I don't know if I can be in a relationship with someone who lives so far from me. And I don't know if I'm ready to be in a relationship, period."

Amazon looked at the boy with a tender expression. "Relationships can be hard. So if I'm right, you think you love her, but you don't know if you're ready to be in love?"

"Yes."

Amazon thought for a moment. "Let me tell you something, Alexei," she said, looking the boy directly in the eye. "By telling me about your concerns, it tells me that you have a big heart. And that's very important. When you have a big heart, you know how to follow it. I don't want to tell you that you should or shouldn't date this girl, or even love her, but I will say that, if you pay attention to your gut, you'll know the right answer."

"Is it OK if we try and it doesn't work?"

"Yes! Everything is OK to try. That's part of growing up."

"But what if we're not friends anymore if we try to be in love and it doesn't work?"

"Are you friends right now?" Alexei nodded vigorously. "Well, you might not be friends anymore if you date. But that's a chance you might have to take to take the relationship farther."

"Oh." Alexei fell silent.

Amazon put a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'm telling you, Alexei. You will know what to do, I promise. And it's OK if you don't. Love isn't supposed to be easy."

"Thanks, Amazon," he smiled sadly.

* * *

 _Myranda Lidano, 18  
District Two Female_

* * *

"Good morning, competitors! It's time to get started on our second week of competition! If you have not already, please put on your attire for the morning challenge and meet us in Competition Zone Two."

Myranda had been a bit hesitant to put on the uniform for the day: a miner's uniform. In Two, being a miner was the lowest possible place you could be if you were working in an industry-related job. Obviously, the top was the trainees and trainers. Then came Peacekeepers and their teachers and trainers. And on the lowest tier were the miners. Being a miner meant you couldn't figure anything else out to do. Even being in a non-industry role, like being a shopkeeper or a regular teacher for the ten kids who didn't train, was better than being a miner. It was the lowest of the low, with the goal being to find a way out.

The one good thing, Myranda had to admit, about being a miner was that you could still feed your family. That was why Two had the lowest involuntary unemployment rate of any district. But it still was certainly not preferable.

Reluctantly, Myranda donned the miner's outfit, which was bright blue, of course, a red safety vest, and a red helmet. Then, she sheepishly made her way to the competition zone. What would her friends and family think, seeing her in a miner's outfit?

The setup for this challenge was quite unusual. Twenty-eight giant blocks made out of… something stood in a circle, with walls separating them. Next to each slab was a giant pick-axe and a large rectangular bin with lots of smaller slots. Clearly, this was literally going to be a mining challenge.

Great.

"Good morning, competitors! As you may have guessed, today we will be honoring one of the closest districts to the Capitol geographically: District Two! Today, Two is responsible for masonry, the production of various construction materials. This can mean making bricks or mining and shaping stone. And mining stone is exactly what you're going to do today. Well, sort of.

"Within those giant blocks are a number of smaller, unbreakable blocks within your color. All you need to do is get those blocks out of the larger brick. You will have one hour to extract as many bricks as you can. Here's the catch: within all of your blocks are smaller blocks of other competitors' colors. If you extract any block that is not yours, that block counts for your competitor. Are there any questions?"

"What counts as a block being extracted?" asked Alexei.

"More than half of the block should be visible, and the block should be totally loose from the larger block. If you are unsure, place the block in your rectangle counter, and we will determine whether or not it counts for you. Any other questions?

"The challenge will begin when I sound the horn. Good luck!"

Myranda was focused and ready to take all of her anger out on the block. But then she looked across the way. Directly across from her, as usual, was Chloe, who looked comical in her helmet that clearly wasn't sized correctly holding a pickaxe as big as she. To Chloe's left was the little girl from Eight; she was still wearing all black, despite the fainting escapade of a few days before, but her wall was set up in such a way that it kept her in the shade. She also had a cooler and a fan in her section with her. To Chloe's right was…

Liana.

Myranda really didn't want to admit it, but she had enjoyed her sex with Liana. It had been quite fun, actually, and Myranda would gladly do it again. That girl knew how to deliver what others were looking for. And she did have a certain beauty to her; Liana's grey eyes stood out against her pale skin and dark hair. Myranda admired that Liana was so strong-willed, so persuasive, and so much her own person. She would be the perfect girlfriend.

No. Not a girlfriend. Definitely not a girlfriend. An ally, a connection.

Not a girlfriend.

Suddenly, Myranda realized that the horn had sounded, and that literally everyone else had started hacking at their blocks.

Damn it! Liana and Myranda weren't even officially dating, but she had already hindered her progress.

This was why Careers didn't fall in love.

* * *

 _Nell Edwards, 14  
District Six Female_

* * *

Now that the challenge was over, Nell was totally ready to check in with some of the other competitors. Between the morning and afternoon challenges, she had three people on her list: Henley, to see if she, as a spy, had noticed anything, Damien, to see what he knew from the outside world, and Ventus. Having seen the way Ventus interacted with the kids, Nell had a feeling that he wasn't to blame. But she wanted to interview him to get to know him a little better. Nell felt bad that she had judged Ventus so much for his prior actions back home, and that she'd totally led Aelyx down the wrong path as a result. Now, she needed to get to get to know Ventus better to rectify her wrongs.

But first, Henley. Nell spotted the older girl coming out of her house, and intrepidly bounded over to her. "Hi Henley!"

"Hello, Nell."

"Can I ask you a question real quick?"

"Sure. What's up."

Nell took out a notepad and gave it a dramatic flick. "I just like to do that for the journalist flair," she admitted with a smile, pulling a pencil from behind her ear. "Now, I have heard rumors about some… funny business happening during the Events."

Henley raised her eyebrows. She had not yet heard any of this. "Oh?"

"Yes. Apparently, there has been some mention of sabotage."

"Like what?"

"Like stealing packages or a screw and holding on to them for quite a while during the challenge until the targeted competitor has been significantly set back."

"Well, I haven't heard anything of the sort."

"Have you, yourself, been sabotaged?"

"Not as of yet," Henley admitted.

"Well, if you see anything, let me know! This is gonna make for a great scoop," Nell slightly fibbed as she flipped her notebook back to the front. "Thanks for your help, Henley!" And she darted away.

Next was Damien, the new kid. Damien was a complete mystery. In almost every free moment, he was either competing in a challenge or in his house. Nell hoped to crack the code, and to learn a bit more about the kid. She approached the house next to hers and knocked on the door. It creaked open. "Hello?"

"Hi! Are you Damien?"

"Yes."

"I wanted to introduce myself to you! I'm Nell, the Six female."

"It's nice to meet you."

"Can I ask you a few questions really quickly?"

"Yes," Damien smiled. "Do you want to come in?"

"Sure!" Nell took a step inside and sat on the couch in the living room. "So I guess first, I want to know about your time at home. What do you do?"

"Well, I'm pretty normal, I'd say. I go to school. I do gymnastics out of school too, which is fun. We used to be pretty poor, but now, thanks to my mom's new job, we live in a slightly wealthier section of Five, which allowed me to get involved with gymnastics!"

"That sounds like a lot of fun! So you've been watching the Events at home?"

"Of course. We couldn't not. It's kind of cool to watch something and then BAM! Be a part of it!"

"Have you noticed anything weird going on in the Events?"

"Hm." The gears began to turn in Damien's mind. "You mean outside of what happened with Rochas? Well, I think you're talking about what's happening with Aviel."

Nell cocked her head. "Go on."

"Oh, it's the main storyline the Events editors are playing with. I'm guessing that the Capitolites are eating it up."

"Would you be interested in trying to stop it?"

"I don't think I'll have the energy to, to be honest," Damien admitted. "Competing in so many challenges so quickly will take a lot out of me."

"That's quite fair. Well, have a good day, Damien! Good luck!"

"You too."

So, Henley had no knowledge of what was going on, and Damien almost had too much knowledge. Nell certainly wondered where Ventus sat, but really wasn't as concerned about that. She needed some sort of evidence that he was good to fully get Aelyx on her side. Henley might help, but she probably had other stuff to do that were spy related. Aelyx, who had no other mission on which he needed to focus, would be the perfect person to join them. But she needed to make sure that he knew that Ventus wasn't all bad. Nell had missed Ventus's interview as it was directly after hers, and she had a feeling that Aelyx also wasn't paying attention to it. Maybe he had said something especially redeeming there.

Nell approached Ventus's house. "Hello?" he said, cracking open the door.

"Hi, Ventus! Can I come in?"

Ventus, who generally didn't spend a ton of time with the other competitors, was surprised. "Why?"

"Because I want to get to know you." _And because I need you on my side._

* * *

 **Another Sunday, another update! What did you think? What will Alexei and Myranda choose to do? Will Nell get Ventus to join her side?**

 **I haven't been able to write as much as I would have liked over the past couple of weeks, but I'm hoping to get back on it and push out a couple of extra chapters over the next few weeks!**

 **Have a great week!**

 **goldie031**


	46. An Honor to Joust

_Chloe Antoni, 12  
District Two "Male"_

* * *

Chloe was honestly upset to see that Damien had to run and do other challenges during lunch. The morning challenge was so short that maybe he would have a break and he could spend it with some other kids! But it seemed as though Damien was either competing or resting the whole day. It was sad that he couldn't make friends with the other kids! That was something that Chloe was really thrilled with: her new friends. When she was with Wins and Ramona and Alder and Alexei, and even the slightly older Morrel and Sinsya, she was more outspoken and herself than she'd ever been before! Wins especially had made her feel so worth it and so liked. Chloe felt so lucky that she'd met all of them through the Events.

 _'Cause I remember the rush, when forever was us  
Before all of the winds of regret and mistrust  
Now we sit in your car and our love is a ghost  
Well I guess I should go  
Yeah I guess I should go_

"Good afternoon, competitors! If you have not done so already, please put on your outfits for the afternoon challenge. Please note that this is not your standard athleticwear attire, so please make sure to put on the new outfit that we have selected for you, including all of the padding. Then, please make your way to Competition Zone One. When you get there, please go right into the door in your personal color and await further instructions."

Chloe went into her room to find laid out for her a red top and bottom. So that was nothing different. The difference today was that there were also red elbow and knee pads, and a red helmet with a red number two on it. As Chloe had stupidly chosen the same color as her district color, she didn't know what was supposed to be her red and what was District Two red. She figured she'd just have to see someone else's outfit to figure it out. Not that it was all that important. She was just curious.

Before going to the competition zone, Chloe checked in with Milky White quickly. While she had let the cow go a couple of days before, it kept coming back to her house. So, she figured the cow had adopted her as a pet. Chloe didn't mind. She liked having a pet! And it could go all around and graze, which was even better. "Hi, Milky White! Are you having a good day?" The cow mooed. "Great. I'll see you later!" She confidently made her way to the competition zone.

When she arrived, Chloe found herself in front of a large white building, wider but shorter than the warehouse from two days prior. Looking around, she caught sight of a bright red door. Remembering Violet's instructions, she entered the room, hearing the door lock behind her.

After a few minutes, Violet began to explain the challenge. "Competitors! Welcome to our afternoon challenge for District Two! Now, as you know, Two has a long history with various forms of physical training. Not only have they produced the highest number of Victors, but they also were responsible for military, Peacekeeper, and police training before that job was reassigned to District Thirteen. So, today we will be paying homage to the physical history of District Two through a jousting tournament!

"We have randomly assigned you to a bracket of one on one matches. To compete, you will stand on a podium with a jousting stick. All you need to do is knock your opponent off of their podium, and you win the match! First to win two rounds wins the match and advances to the next round. The loser is eliminated. Please note that any overly hard hits to any body part will automatically deem the hitter a loser."

"Your placement within the group of losers who are eliminated in your bracket will be based on the total number of points you have accumulated. The top ranking competitor on each side of the bracket will receive a bye after the first round.

"I think that's it. You will be escorted to your various matches by a Peacekeeper-referee. Good luck!"

This was a challenge that Chloe had a possibility of succeeding in! She was trained, after all. She might not love training, but she was trained. And she was energetic! She was cute! She could totally win.

A few minutes later, a door opened, and a Peacekeeper came in to escort Chloe to her battle room. Unfortunately, when she arrived, she found that her opponent was Sol, who was like a foot and a half taller than Chloe and much larger than she. But Chloe could still give it a chance!

"Competitors," said a Peacekeeper, acting as referee. "Please take hold of the jousting sticks and step onto your podiums." Chloe obliged, grabbing hold of a stick that was nearly bigger than she was. "Each round will begin after I count to three. One, two, three!"

Chloe was, unfortunately, quite clumsy with the stick. When she attempted to hit Sol to knock him off, she wasn't even strong enough to make a dent. Lucky for her, Sol had actually missed on his first shot, swinging the stick over Chloe's head. The second time, however, Sol basically booped her on the head and it was enough to knock her onto the padding below.

"The first round goes to competitor Mikkelson. Please set up again."

Unfazed, Chloe took her place back on her podium. One little loss wouldn't hurt her! She still had a shot against the taller boy. Confidently, Chloe stood back up on the podium. This was going to be a piece of cake!

"Begin on the count of three. One, two, three!" counted the referee.

This time, Chloe elected not to strike first. She watched as to try to judge the older boy's moves. Unfortunately for her, Sol managed to boop her on the head again, just barely nudging her, but it was still enough to knock her off of the podium.

"The second round, and the match, goes to competitor Mikkelson."

Sol stepped down off of his podium and helped the young girl up. "Sorry to do that, Chloe."

"Don't worry! You did well. Good luck in the later rounds!"

* * *

 _Alder Howe, 12  
District Twelve Male_

* * *

This was probably not going to be Alder's competition. That was natural, though. He was a younger kid, and not built particularly strongly. But even if he wasn't going to win, he was going to put up a fight. Maybe he'd weaken someone else enough that they'd be easier to beat later on.

Alder didn't know how long passed before it was time to go. But after a little while, he was retrieved by a Peacekeeper and brought to one of the arena things. He couldn't think of what else ot call it other than an Arena. He was the first to arrive, so he carefully tightened his mint green armbands and kneepads while waiting for his opponent. Soon, his opponent entered the room.

No! It was Crixus!

Alder couldn't fight right against Crixus. They were buddies! They were friends! Crixus was basically Alder's role model! Only one of them could win now that they were against each other. And that was really sad.

"Well, it looks like it comes down to us, Alder," Crixus said to the little guy.

"It seems so. What are we going to do?"

"I guess we're going to have to fight," Crixus stated the obvious. He offered his large hand to the little boy to shake. "Good luck."

"You too."

The referee began the first round between the boys. As soon as he counted to three, Alder's competitive spirit burst through. He took his jousting stick and began frantically whacking Crixus in any way he possibly could. Alder wasn't particularly strong, but he was doing an effective job of disorienting Crixus, at any rate. He did so especially well when he managed to whack Crixus in his private parts. "Ouch!" Crixus exclaimed.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Are you all right!"

Crixus carefully straightened up. "Yeah," he grimaced.

"Do you need a hand?" Alder asked.

"Nope. Let's just keep fighting."

Alder squared up again. This time, however, Crixus came on a bit stronger. Alder found him attacking Crixus less and defending himself more. Eventually, Crixus came on so strongly that Alder was just… knocked off.

A little kid like Alder had no shot against Crixus.

Clearly distraught, Alder stepped back up onto the podium. "Ready to go again?" Crixus asked.

"I guess so."

"What's wrong, Alder?"

"I can't win. You're definitely going to beat me. Why even try?"

"Come on. You don't know that. Let's fight again."

Reluctantly, Alder squared up again. When the referee began the fight, he half-heartedly flung his stick in the general direction of Crixus. He wasn't even looking at the older boy. So when the referee called the round for Alder, the younger boy was quite surprised. Maybe Crixus wasn't unbeatable.

"See, Alder? I told you you could beat me!"

"I guess so!"

"You see, even if it might be hard for you to win, it's more important to at least try because you never know when you'll succeed. You'll always be your own biggest opponent, and when you overcome it, you feel the most proud. Now, are you going to give me a real fight this round?"

"YEAH!"

Alder was totally ready to fight again. Maybe he really could beat Crixus! He grabbed the jousting stick more confidently than he ever had before and eagerly prepared to fight Crixus. Maybe he could really win this one! He'd already beaten him once before. It would be easy to beat Crixus again!

When the round started, Alder barraged Crixus again with the stick. He was more ferocious than ever before! The problem came when he leaned too far forward while trying to hit him. Alder's own weight and his jousting stick pulled him forward until he fell off of his podium, flat on his face, giving the round, and the match, to Crixus.

"Are you OK?" Crixus asked.

"Yeah." Alder sat up and thought for a moment. "You were right, Crixus. I am my own biggest opponent."

"I told you."

"Yeah! You see, I was the only one who was able to beat myself! You couldn't even beat me!"

* * *

 _Sawyer Burns, 18  
District Seven Female_

* * *

"The third round, and the match, goes to competitor Burns."

Sawyer stepped off her podium. "Good fight, Jess!"

"You too, Sawyer," Jess smiled. "This was kinda fun, actually."

"I agree." She helped Jess up. "I like competing against other people. It makes things more fun!"

"So, now what happens?"

The referee stepped in. "I'll escort competitor Burns out first, then Competitor Rogers. Another Peacekeeper will come to escort you to your next round, competitor Burns."

"Well, I'll see you later, Jess."

"Bye!"

The Peacekeeper-referee led Sawyer back to her initial holding room through a bunch of winding corridors. After quite a while, another Peacekeeper came in and brought Sawyer to another battle room. Though, for all Sawyer knew, it was the same battle room. It looked exactly the same, after all. Except that the podiums were a little bit smaller this time than they were the time before.

After a moment, Sawyer's opponent entered the room. And, unfortunately, it appeared to be Silas. That did not bode well. But Sawyer was bold, not someone who would just give up because she was facing a strong opponent. She could definitely win if she put up a fight! The question was how to do so.

The Peacekeeper refereeing the match set the competitors up on their podiums, then formally began the first round of the match.

Sawyer's first approach was to allow Silas to set the pace of the battle. She held her jousting stick straight up, protecting her chest and her crotch area, so that Silas could not hit those, but loosely enough that she was totally ready to move it to block Silas's attacks. The problem was that it seemed as though he… they? They were taking the same strategy. The two stood at a stand-off for quite a few minutes, each waiting for the other to attack.

After a while, Sawyer elected to be the one to take the first move. She lightly swung the stick out, almost as though she was attempting to poke Silas in the head. Silas effectively blocked it. With her body unprotected, it freed up Silas to go for her chest. Luckily, Sawyer's reflexes were just as good, allowing her to block herself.

Now that the ice had been broken, it was time to actually fight! Silas's attacks came on very rapidly. It took all of Sawyer's reflexes to dodge them, as Silas quickly switched between attacking her upper body and her lower body. Eventually, they were going so quickly that Sawyer just couldn't keep up, leaving the middle of her body exposed for Silas to hit strongly enough that she fell off of her podium.

"The first round goes to competitor Rune. Please set up again."

Sawyer decided that she needed a different strategy for the second round. This time, maybe it was better to come out attacking instead of defending. As soon as the referee started, Sawyer lunged at Silas. Luckily, she was able to catch them off guard. Silas took a step back, but there was nowhere to step back to. He lost his balance and nearly fell off, but using impressive coordination and core strength, he was able to recover, dropping his stick in the process.

Ha! This was Sawyer's opening! She could totally knock them off while they were bending do… wait. They already had the jousting stick.

Darn it.

Now Sawyer, who had lowered herself to get a better shot at Silas, was in the dangerous position. She needed to stand up without losing her balance and without getting hit. Unfortunately, it did not work. Silas seized the opportunity to attack Sawyer, hitting her in the side and knocking her off the podium again.

"The second round, and the match, goes to Contestant Rune."

"You were a worthy opponent, Sawyer. It was a pleasure to fight you."

Sawyer was a bit disappointed that she didn't manage to win. But at least she was able to put up a fight!

* * *

 _Ventus Gorva, 16  
District Six Male_

* * *

This was not a challenge that Ventus was particularly thrilled about. Ventus, who had spent so long trying to shake his Career identity. Who had spent so long trying to stop fighting, to stop feeling that he was obligated to be belligerent. Who had done everything in his power to shed the Career identity forced on him by his origin. Ventus, who was now supposed to fight to get more points.

It simply wasn't fair.

This was Ventus's third fight. The first one against Mal had been pretty easily his. Mal wasn't great at balancing, not to mention that she wasn't all that strong. Ventus had tried to be delicate with her, and as far as he could tell, he'd succeeded. The second match was against Crixus. Now, he'd actually fought in that match. But the act of fighting made Ventus feel uncomfortable. And he was actually rather unhappy that he'd already won. He didn't want to be known as a fighter anymore. He didn't want to be known as a belligerent Career.

He just wanted to be Ventus.

He didn't even want to be Ventus. He wanted to be… someone else.

Luckily, it seemed as though Nell was on his side, which was a first. She had been so kind while talking to him the day before! And she hadn't really ever talked to him before that. Sure, she was writing it down. But if there was anyone who could help fix his reputation, it would be a journalist. And Nell was quite an intrepid journalist, to say the least. But for now, it seemed to Ventus as though nothing would help. He was just stuck where he was.

And that sucked.

A Peacekeeper came in to escort Ventus to his next match. Reluctantly, Ventus followed. If there was one thing that he didn't want, it was to not follow Ruby's instructions and get kicked out like Rochas did. Granted, Ruby had only kicked Rochas out because Rochas was being destructive. Ventus wasn't being destructive.

Ventus entered another battle Arena to find himself up against Sol. While Ventus didn't know for sure, he assumed that Sol had been trained; after all, he was from a Career district. There was no way that Ventus could beat him.

He might as well give up.

The Peacekeeper-referee officially began the match between the two. In the first round, Ventus half-heartedly fought against Sol. He was kind of lightly swinging the stick back and forth, not wanting to really fend off Sol's attacks. He basically just... let Sol hit knock him off of the podium, not putting up much of any resistance.

"Are you OK, Ventus?" Sol asked.

"I don't really want to fight."

Sol laid down his jousting stick. "If you don't want to fight, I won't fight you. All you need to do is step down next time. I promise."

"OK."

The Peacekeeper set up the next round. Sol and Ventus took their spots on the podium again, and when the round started, Ventus simply stepped off.

"The second round, and the match, goes to Competitor Mikkelson."

"Thank you, Sol. I really appreciate not having to fight."

"Of course. Any time."

The Peacekeeper escorted Sol out first, and then led Ventus to the exit of the building. "You're free to go," the Peacekeeper said brightly. Ventus nodded and made his way over to the courtyard. He planned on going right over to his house, but before that could happen, Nell intercepted him.

"Hi, Ventus!"

"Hi, Nell."

"So, did you think about my offer from earlier?"

Ventus didn't remember the offer at all. "What offer?"

"To join the group to take Aviel down. You'll get to make a positive difference in the Events and in the country!"

"I genuinely can't think about that right now, Nell. I just need some time to myself."

"OK. Well, if you need anything, let me know. I can be your friend if you need."

"Thanks."

Ventus entered his house and closed the door, then just lay down on the couch. He would end up sleeping there that night, not having the energy to move.

* * *

 **Here it is: the legendary boop chapter! I've been so excited about this for so long and here it is! What did you think about this challenge and the fights? Who do you think won?**

 **We have reached another check-in chapter! For this check-in, please rank the seven competitors you would _want_ to win; not necessarily the ones you think _will_ win, and you may not rank your own competitor. The check-in word is BOOP. **

**I'll see you next week for another chapter!**

 **-goldie031**


	47. How Did We End Up Here?

_Morrel Elmwyner, 14  
District Seven Male_

* * *

Morrel knew that he was a smart kid. By this point, that almost went without saying. He was able to stay on par with Sinsya and Alexei in their discussions, he was pretty perceptive, and was also able to come up with good strategies for many of the challenge. And he was getting smarter, too! Morrel had gotten his hands on higher up textbooks in many subjects to study those. While he was still spending some time with other kids, Morrel was also spending time studying for entrance exams for the D6 Pre-U programs, which he'd be taking at the beginning of March. He was still getting used to not always being focused on schoolwork, and it did bother him a little bit. But maybe there was space for both studying and friends, here at least.

Anyway, all of that was to say that Morrel was quite book smart. Street smart? Not so much. So while he sensed quite a bit of tension between Ramona and Alexei, he could not for the life of him figure out what was going on between them.

The kids were still all eating together, which was really nice. But Morrel noticed that, whenever Ramona tried to talk to Alexei, he was kind of brushing her off, as if he really didn't want to interact with her. That was very odd to Morrel. Just, like, two days before, the two had been dancing together and very happy, generally seeming to be doing really well as a couple. (That is, if they, as a pair of thirteen-year-olds, could even be considered a couple.) How could things have shifted so quickly in just two days?

Morrel decided to ask someone about it. Not that he had any stake in the matter, but he was really quite curious. He chose to ask the person who would have the most information about the matter: Sinsya.

Morrel approached Sinsya, who was reading some sort of ridiculously high level math textbook. "Hey, Sinsya?"

"Yes?"

"I have a quick question."

Sinsya closed the book. "What's up?"

"Do you have any idea what's happening with Ramona and Alexei?"

"Aren't they a couple or something?"

"No, I don't think so. Alexei doesn't really want to talk to Ramona."

Sinsya shrugged. "I really am not paying attention to that whole situation," she admitted. "If they're dating, they're dating! And if they're not, they're not. I honestly have much more to worry about than whether or not they're in a relationship. Even if I was worried about it, I wouldn't be able to tell."

"Okay, then." Morrel turned away, discouraged. Well, not discouraged. Just, hoping to get more information than he wound up getting.

Hmm. Who else could he ask? Not Alder. That kid couldn't focus on anything. And there weren't really any other kids to ask. Morrel also hadn't really talked to the older competitors, so more than likely, they wouldn't really tell him anything. He figured that he'd have to go back to watching them and trying to figure things out.

 _Goin' the distance, every occasion  
Headed for somewhere out of the way  
_ _Movin' and shakin' every persuasion  
Keepin' us out there, caught in the waves_

Morrel had gotten used to hearing music close to when a challenge would be announced. He decided that the question of what the heck was happening with his friends would have to wait.

"Good morning, competitors! Your outfit for the day is now waiting for you in your bedroom. Hopefully, you'll be able to guess the district from just the outfit. Once you've put it on, you'll be splitting into competition groups. Again, your group number directly corresponds to the competition zone you should go to.

"The first group is Henley, Damien, Sinsya, Nell, Sawyer, Ventus, and Winsley. The second group is Myranda, Chloe, Mallory, Aelyx, Jess, Liana, and Crixus. The third group is Solomon, Kitt, Alexei, Sage, Amazon, Alder, and Sharen. And the fourth group is Lyric, Morrel, Silas, Aviel, Luna, Ramona, and Serenity. Please get to your competition zones as soon as possible."

Morrel entered his house and checked his room. Violet was right; the district was quite easily identifiable. It was a pair of blue jeans, a shirt in a pattern of white and green plaid, a leather belt with his district seal on the bright silver buckle, and a cowboy hat. While Morrel had certainly seen shirts of this ilk back home, he'd never seen a cowboy hat anywhere except for Ten. Undoubtedly, they'd be honoring Ten today.

Yee-ha.

* * *

 _Kitt Mosley, 17  
District Ten Male_

* * *

Kitt was stoked to finally be up to his district's challenges. As soon as he found his outfit in his room, he knew that these would be challenges at which he would do well. More likely than not, these would not be butchery challenges; that would be a bit too grotesque for the general population. So the only other thing that the challenges could possibly have to do with was herding animals. And that was basically what Kitt did for a living.

When Kitt arrived at his competition zone, he found a large circular pen with a number of what could only be described as robotic cows in the tributes' assigned colors inside of it. Each of the seven competitors in his group, Solomon, Kitt, Alexei, Sage, Amazon, Alder, and Sharen, had a designated section of fence near which to stand; a lasso for each was hung on a pole nearby. Kitt took his position by his section of fence and grabbed his lasso, swinging it around a bit; luckily he hadn't lost his touch. While he mostly wrestled bulls at the rodeo back home, he occasionally found himself doing rope tricks, so this challenge would on all fronts be right in his wheelhouse.

Once everyone had arrived at Kitt's competition zone, Violet gave the competitors instructions for the challenge.

"Well, as you may have guessed, competitors, today we will be honoring our livestock district, District Ten! District Ten is known for raising, butchering, and shipping out nearly all of the meat that we consume here in Panem, as well as the dairy industry, shearing sheep for wool, and also raising pets. We are so lucky that we have this district as such a nice home for animals!

"This morning, we will be focusing on cows and cowboys, possibly the most recognizable symbol representing Ten, and both representative of Ten's livestock industry and their dairy industry. Each of you has a number of robotic cows in your color in your pen. All you have to do is lasso the cow to receive points! You will know that you've lassoed the cow because the cowbell around its neck will turn from red to green. But, beware: there are cows that belong, so to speak, to other competitors in your pen, and they, too, will receive points if you lasso them.

"Just like in the obstacle course challenge, you will be scored individually; however, if your group finishes first, each of you will be moved up a spot, if possible. The challenge ends when everyone has lassoed each of their own cows. The challenge will begin when the horn sounds. Good luck!"

Instantly, Kitt recognized that his group had an advantage: his existence. That wasn't to be stuck up; rather, it was quite realistic. After all, he was the only person in the competition with any experience actually working with livestock. And that could be an advantage for his group.

"Hey, everyone!" he called. "Pay attention to me quickly." His whole group turned to him. "Watch me lasso really quickly. If you need advice during the challenge, call for me and I'll help you." Kitt confidently took the lasso in his hand, swinging the loop in his right hand while holding the rest of the rope with the left. "The key to swinging the lasso is, when the momentum of the loop is carrying forward, to swing it forward and give it even more momentum as you release. Make sure to follow through and release, then grab the slack. Pull when it loops onto the cow. Got it?" The others nodded. "Good."

When the horn sounded, the cows began moving all around the pen. That would certainly make things more difficult, but not impossible. Confidently, and with the aim of a sniper, Kitt quickly managed to lasso all of his cows in quick succession. He was impressed by the technology of the lasso; once it got around the horn or head of the cow, the cow bowed its head, allowing the lasso to slip off and Kitt to pull it back. That wouldn't be very good back home, but it was just perfect for allowing Kitt to win the challenge.

Once Kitt was finished, he called out, "Does anyone need help? This way we can all finish faster."

"Me!" called Alder, the smallest in the group.

"Yeah, help Alder first," agreed Sage.

"Me too!" Alexei exclaimed.

"Well, you two are next to each other." Kitt grabbed his lasso and worked his way around the pen to between Alder and Alexei, who were conveniently located right next to each other. "Let's get to work, kiddos."

* * *

 _Liana Klepper, 16  
District Nine Female_

* * *

Liana was very impressed by her groups challenge performance overall. She, Crixus, and Chloe had all figured things out pretty quickly. Or gotten really lucky. One of the two. Then, they'd all fanned out to help each other out. It was really nice to work in a group that worked together well, especially as some of them had already worked together in previous team challenges.

The awkward thing about the challenge was that she had been placed randomly in a group with Myranda. (That couldn't have made the President very happy.) But Liana really didn't want to look the other girl in the eye. Since they'd hooked up, Myranda had not even looked her in the eye Now, that was one thing to do with, say, a prostitute. (Not that Liana had any experience with prostitutes. Really, she didn't!) You would only see a prostitute once ever, after all; the odds of running into them again were quite slim, if not nonexistent. But she and Myranda would have to see each other again for another six or so days. And making no eye contact at all for six days was not how Liana wanted to spend her time.

Liana paced across the room, trying to figure out what she could do to fix the situation between them. She really, really, really wanted Myranda! She would even be OK with just being friends, or just having this be a relationship for the duration of the Games, or whatever; Liana just wanted some sort of closure one way or another. But clearly, Myranda didn't want her as she was. Liana needed to find a way to become more desirable to the woman from Two. But what could she do to do that? Liana couldn't suddenly become trained, after all, nor could she suddenly become prettier or less pretty or anything of the sort. Maybe it was the tattoos? She could always hide the tattoos. But before she could get further down her rabbit hole of thoughts, there was a knock on the door.

Liana dusted herself off and went to get the door. She opened it to find a slightly sheepish-looking Myranda standing there. "Hi," Myranda began.

"Hi."

"Can we talk?"

"Yeah. In private?"

"Yeah."

Myranda entered Liana's house. Liana shut the door behind her. The two sat down on Liana's couch.

"Look, I… I guess I want to apologize? I don't know if apologize is the right word. Maybe explain myself is better. About why I disappeared."

"Uh huh?" Liana wasn't convinced that she was quite ready to hear it. She braced herself for the absolute worst.

"When we had sex the first time, I wasn't quite ready for a full relationship. I was kind of just looking for immediate pleasure and not much more," Myranda lied. "But there was something so special about that night. Something that, no matter how much I thought about it, I didn't want to lose. And I think that something special was you."

It was funny for Liana to hear Myranda say that. Normally, Liana was much more interested in one-night stands than anything else. And with any other girl, Liana would also probably want a one-night stand more than a relationship. But just like Myranda, Liana had sensed something special in her partner. "Do you really?"

"Yes."

Naturally, the two girls leaned in and shared a kiss. This was a different kiss from the ones that they'd shared while having sex. Those were kisses of passion, kisses that just happened in the heat of the moment. This was a delicate kiss, one that showed that neither was trying to show the other up or take power over the other. Liana didn't know if this was true love's kiss, but it sure came pretty darn close.

They pulled apart. A beautiful, satisfied silence followed.

"Wow," Myranda said.

"Yeah. Wow."

"Would you like to come over tonight?"

"I'd rather you come over here. I don't President Emerald to see me walking back from your house."

"Eh, what does the president have anything to do with it?"

"She kind of has jurisdiction over me. Being her great-niece and all."

"But she's not even blood related to you!"

"But still."

"Fine. We'll meet here after the challenge. I'll see you later." Myranda stole a quick kiss from Liana before she left, leaving the girl from Nine sitting on her couch, beaming.

Myranda really did like her for who she was.

* * *

 _Henley Moriarty, 16  
District Thirteen Female_

* * *

After the whole Rochas situation, Henley had essentially been asked to broaden her mission focus. Rather than focus on one person, she would need to keep an eye on everything in the Arena. Her conversation with Nell the day before had led her to believe that there was, in fact, some foul play going on. And considering that Henley had not seen anything from anyone in the past twenty-four or so hours, she had a feeling that the sabotages were courtesy of Ventus. He had a form of criminal record, after all, even if it hadn't resulted in sabotages. And the Capitol had specifically told her to keep an eye on him! More likely than not, any sabotages happening were Ventus's fault.

Now, if Henley had her say, she would be tailing Ventus herself. It wasn't that she didn't trust Sage…

Oh, who was she kidding. She totally didn't trust Sage. Just from looking out the window of her house, Henley could tell that Sage was preoccupied with something else. Rather than focusing on tailing Ventus, he was watching something else in a completely opposite direction. That wasn't how a mission was supposed to go! Missions should be one's only focus. You should eat, sleep, and breathe your mission! And while Henley hadn't been rigged into the Events with a specific mission in mind, once she had been given one, she followed it through until the threat had been nullified. Why wasn't Sage doing the same thing? Was the Capitol lying about him being a spy?

No, the Capitol wouldn't do that. More likely, he was still in training, and therefore just bad at his job. Henley would love to take his mission off of his hands. But that too was against protocol. It was a spy's job to stay in their lane and finish their mission and trust that other spies were doing the same. Even though the pair had decided between themselves who would cover which suspect, they now had to stick with it, and not interfere with the other.

But that didn't mean that, as the face of the mission, Henley couldn't confront Sage about it.

Taking a deep breath, Henley strode out of her house and beelined to the table at which Sage was sitting. She sat down right in Sage's field of vision, startling the boy and obstructing his view of… what was he looking at? Liana's house? Why?

"Oof! You startled me."

"Sage, what are you doing?"

"What do you mean, what am I doing?"

"Your mission is supposed to be focusing on Ventus. His house is that way. You're looking this way. That's not even on the same axis."

"But I'm not worried about Ventus," Sage admitted. "He has not done anything to prove to me that he merits continuous observation."

"But, you see, Sage, some people are really good at sabotaging other people without being seen. When you have a mission, you have to commit wholeheartedly to it. Don't let anything distract you from your goal. So stop looking at Liana's house and stop looking at Ventus's."

"But don't you need a break sometimes? It must be really challenging to be so focused on your mission all the time."

"Sage, that's the first rule of being a spy. You have to always be focused on your mission. Otherwise, something might happen under your watch, and that's dangerous."

"Even if you know that nothing else could possibly happen with your mission?"

"Even if. Unless overhead formally changes your mission, there is nothing you can do."

"Well, do you want to take it over? If you're so invested in it…"

"I can't!" Henley exclaimed, exasperated. "When we divided up our missions, we determined that you would be tailing Ventus and I would be tailing Rochas. We can't switch now.

"But… but…" Sage took a deep breath. It was almost as though he was hiding something from Henley, debating how much to tell her. "Fine." He was done arguing. Sage visibly shifted his body position so that, rather than face Liana's house, he was facing Ventus's. "Happy?"

"Yes. Thank you." Unceremoniously, with her temporary mission complete, Henley returned to her house. Now she just needed to keep an eye on everyone else.

* * *

 **Hi everyone! Sorry this chapter is a day late – yesterday was approximately the craziest day ever at camp. But we're doing better now. Anyway, what do you think? Is something going on with Alexei and Ramona? How about Liana and Myranda? Will Henley get her way?**

 **I'm going to hopefully open up subs for IDIDE2 next week, but it's going to be done a bit differently than you might have seen before. I'm super excited to get the sequel going!**

 **See you next week!**

 **-goldie031**


	48. Let Me Help You Count Your Sheep

_Lyric Cloud, 15  
Capitol Female_

* * *

There had been a lot of music in the Arena since they'd passed the halfway point in competitions. Like, a lot of music. And Lyric and her friends had made a game out of it.

 _You get the limo out front  
Hottest styles, every shoe, every color  
Yea, when you're famous it can be kind of fun  
It's really you but no one ever discovers  
Who would a thought that a girl like me  
Would double as a superstar_

"Lyric, do you know this song too?" asked Jess. She, Lyric, Serenity, and Mallory were hanging out together in Jess's living room. While they still enjoyed spending time with Amazon, Sawyer, and Luna, the two- or three-year age difference between the two groups of girls, as well as the differences in maturity, had caused them to start spending more time with those closer to their age than time together as a whole group.

"Yeah!" Lyric smiled. "This was from one of my favorite shows when I was younger. It was the sixth remake of an ancient show, but apparently every single remake used the same theme song."

"What was it about?" Serenity asked.

"A girl who was also the presenter for the Hunger Games. But she kept the fact that she was a Hunger Games presenter was a secret from all of her friends. So she would wear wigs and stuff and colored contacts and whatever that kept her identity changing. And it was super easy because she lives in the Capitol where everyone has crazy hair!"

"Oh, that's sounds like a cool show!" exclaimed Mallory.

"We all wanted to be like Anna Panem! Well, most of my friends wanted to be like Anna Panem. I played along."

"Ooh, the song is changing!" said Jess. "Do you know this one?"

 _Why are there so many songs about rainbows  
And what's on the other side  
Rainbows are visions  
But only illusions  
And rainbows have nothing to hide_

"This was one of the first songs I learned to pluck on the guitar. As opposed to strumming it," she clarified. "Rainbow Connection."

"It must have been super cool to always be around music," smiled Mallory.

"Well, I wasn't in the store all that much. I spent more time with my… friends. But when I was at home, I was always on an instrument. So we played tracks in the store, but we also played our instruments ourselves."

 _I whip my hair back and forth  
I whip my hair back and forth  
I whip my hair back and forth  
I whip my hair back and forth  
I whip my hair back and forth  
I whip my hair back and forth  
I whip my hair back and forth  
I whip my hair back and forth_

"I can guess you know what this one's called?" Serenity joked.

"Whip My Hair," Lyric groaned. "Come on, Capitol!" she called out. "Give me a hard one!"

 _תשמעו סיפור קצר אולי אפילו קצת מצחיק_ _  
_ _על היום בו פגשתי את גבי ודבי עם המג_ _'_ _יק סטיק_ _  
_ _הלכתי לי ערב אחד לתומי_ _  
_ _הסתכלתי סביבי לפה ולשם_ _  
_ _כשלפתע כולם דיברו באנגלית_ _  
_ _וצבעם התחלף לשחור ולבן_

"What was that?" Mallory asked.

"You asked for a hard one," Jess scoffed.

"But not that hard," lamented Lyric. "That wasn't even English!"

"I guess that if we ever end up not knowing what the answer is, we should guess the word that we also don't know and don't understand," suggested Mallory. The other girls nodded.

"But you've still done very well!" Serenity exclaimed. "You know so many songs."

"Yeah! I'm very impressed by your musical knowledge."

"That's what happens when you play a lot of music," Lyric said. "It kind of becomes a part of you."

Then, Jess asked the most difficult question of all. "What is your favorite song?"

Lyric smiled sadly. "Jess, I think you're asking too difficult of a question. People who are musicians don't have one favorite song. They understand that music can speak to you at different times. So sometimes, I love slow and pretty songs, especially if I'm sad. If I'm happy, an upbeat or trashy pop song will do the trick. And sometimes, specific times of the year make me love specific songs or genres. Basically, as long as it's not bluegrass, there's probably a time at which I might love a song. Because music can speak to you in so many ways."

Mallory smirked. "That was a very lyrical answer, Lyric."

Everyone groaned.

* * *

 _Ramona Wayland, 13  
District Ten Female_

* * *

Ramona just didn't get it. Just a few days before, it seemed as though Alexei was getting closer to her, like her feelings of love were mutual. But now, Alexei didn't seem to want anything to do with her. He was brushing her off and ignoring her. They were still interacting with each other, especially when they were with other kids. But while Alexei a few days ago would just randomly ask Ramona how she was doing, now he was remaining quiet. And while Alexei a few days ago was fairly outgoing around other people, he had suddenly become very quiet, even a little aloof. Ramona definitely hadn't changed a lot, in all that time. Maybe Alexei had.

But Ramona was nothing short of determined to make things work. Even if he wasn't convinced that they could be a couple, she felt that she still had a shot to win Alexei over fully, to convince him that, no matter what else was happening, they could really be together. Perhaps he was just hesitant because of the distance between them! But that was no matter. The Panem that Ramona and Alexei were growing up in was one where they could live in different districts but still be friends. Maybe they could even be more than friends in the country that President Emerald had built!

Feeling bold, Ramona decided to confront Alexei about what was going on. This would probably be an awkward conversation, but she really just wanted to have closure about what was going on. It would be better for her to just approach Alexei and make sure they were both on the same page before they went home in, like, a week. Even though both of them were fairly articulate writers, it was so easy for the words they put on paper to be lost in translation, so to speak; an exclamation point could easily mean anger or excitement depending on the circumstances, and it was often hard to tell which.

Ramona looked around the courtyard and spotted Alexei, sitting behind one of the trees. A bit cautiously, she approached him and took a seat by his side. "Hi, Alexei."

"Hmm?"

"Can we talk for a sec?"

"Um, OK." Seemingly reluctantly, Alexei turned to face Ramona.

"I just… I wanted to talk about our friendship."

"What do you mean, you want to talk about our friendship? I though we were still friends."

"Well, we're definitely still friends, without a doubt. But since we reunited, I… well… I thought that maybe our friendship had changed."

"In what way?"

"I felt like, for a while, we might be becoming more than friends. And that was something that I was really happy about. Like, the thought of being more than friends makes me really excited! And I was really hoping that you were feeling the same way."

Alexei looked a bit uncomfortable and a little distraught. But before he could respond, Violet came in, almost deus ex machina style, to save him.

"Good afternoon, competitors! We're about to move into the afternoon challenge. If you chose to change out of your outfit from the morning challenge, please change back into it. Just like this morning, you will be divided between the competition zones. You know the drill. Group One is Kitt, Henley, Alexei, Amazon, Ramona, Sawyer, and Mallory. Group Two is Chloe, Winsley, Liana, Sage, Solomon, Silas, and Sharen. Group Three is Aelyx, Lyric, Aviel, Damien, Jessamine, Luna, and Sinsya. And Group Four is Nell, Alder, Crixus, Ventus, Myranda, Morrel, and Serenity. Please move quickly so that we can get this challenge started."

"I have to go get ready for the challenge," said Alexei abruptly.

"But you're already dressed!"

"I left my belt in my house."

"So I'll wait for you."

"No, go ahead and I'll meet you at Zone One."

Ramona sighed and made her way to the competition zone. She might not have gotten the answer she wanted from Alexei, but that didn't mean that she was giving up. She would just have to try again the next day. One of these days, she would definitely get an answer. And she definitely wouldn't stop until she got it.

* * *

 _Silas Rune, 18  
Capitol "Male"_

* * *

Silas made their way over to the assigned competition zone, not having changed out of their outfit from the morning. Silas was surprised by how comfortable they felt in jeans and a flannel. Maybe they could move to Ten and rope cows for a living? No, they had a bigger task on their horizon: fixing training. But roping cows was pretty fun.

When they arrived at the competition zone, they found seven square pens of some sort, one for each competitor in their group, and a bunch of sheep mulling around. Silas instinctively went to stand over by their pen. They had a feeling they knew exactly what this challenge was.

After a moment, Sol appeared next to him. "Hey, Silas!"

"Oh, hi, Sol! You're in this group too?"

"Yeah!"

"Sick." Silas gave their friend a high-five. Through all of this planning for how to fix the training system, Silas and Sol had become pretty fast friends. This was understandable, as Amazon had a little distraction named Lucy. Plus, she was a married woman at a very different stage of life from the other two. Even though Sol and Silas had very different reasons for wanting to change the training system – Silas felt as though he hadn't been given proper training for the Events, and Sol was not a fan of the whole training to kill someone thing in the first place – and Silas's reason was much more personal than Silas's, Sol had been really supportive of Silas and their idea. It was nice to have a really supportive friend.

"Any bets on the challenge?"

"My bet is that it involves sheep. And maybe also putting them into pens."

"You're a smart one," Sol retorted.

"Hey. If we don't point out the obvious things, we might think too much about those things and not necessarily analyze those which are not obvious."

"Philosophical all of a sudden."

"I've been with the same twenty-seven people for the past week. Sometimes, you have to get into your mind a bit more.

"Competitors!" Violet announced. "For the afternoon challenge, we will be doing something kind of similar to the morning challenge where we honor two subindustries at once, namely the livestock industry and the wool industry. You will literally be herding sheep. The Arena has been divided into four quadrants, by four fences. All of the sheep of your color are in your quadrant of the Arena. You will very easily be able to tell which sheep are yours; look for a spray-painted number, a bow tie, a vest, something. Just like in the morning challenge, this is individually scored but team influenced. So if everyone in your group gets all of their sheep caught first, everyone will move up a spot.

"The challenge will begin when the horn sounds. Good luck."

This was the third of this style of challenge. Silas actually really enjoyed them; it encouraged everyone to work together. Silas had realized why the Capitol had not been sharing the competitors' placements with them; if someone knew how well they were doing in relation to someone else, they might deliberately choose not to help a fellow competitor to both bring themself up and to bring the other competitor down. Because they had no reason to hurt anybody else, the competitors were almost predisposed to help each other, which was a really good thing.

When the horn sounded, Winsley called out, "Guys! Let's make a strategy." The other competitors joined him… her, it seemed today, near their pen. "Does anyone have any ideas?"

Silas offered, "Why don't we take the people who are faster runners and have them go run and look for all of our far cows, and one or two of us stay here and herd the near cows?"

Everyone nodded. "Good idea, Silas," said Sol.

"So who wants to stay close and who wants to go far?"

"I have a lot of stamina, but I can't run so quickly," Wins suggested. "So I'll stay close."

"And I'm good with animals, so I can help herd the animals into pens," Chloe added. Silas smiled; maybe the pair just wanted to stay together. That was cute.

"I'll go midway," offered the normally stoic Liana. "I might as well help."

"So Silas, Sage, Sharen, and I will go far," said Sol. "Let's do this!"

* * *

 _Aviel Nitsa, 16  
District Nine Male_

* * *

It turned out that Aviel had picked a really good time to stop sabotaging other competitors. For the previous four challenges, there hadn't even been a way to sabotage anyone. Well, that wasn't entirely true. "Hey, look! What's that?" was a super easy way to get an opponent to lose their focus and their balance. But even if Aviel had intended for that to be a sabotage, it wouldn't read that way. And it seemed as though Sharen was off of his trail. She didn't have to know that the other challenges were unsabotageable. And while she hadn't necessarily had the ability to watch him in the previous challenges, Aviel still had a feeling that he'd managed to shake her.

And that was good. Because this was a sabotageable challenge.

The problem was figuring out _how_ to sabotage this one. If this wasn't a group-influenced challenge, it would be easy: fling open a pen door. But here, everyone's placement could be a little better if he and his group finished first out of all the teams. The problem was there was no real way of knowing where everyone else finished. So he could choose not to sabotage anybody in case they did finish first but not actually finish first, or he could choose to sabotage someone but have that be the reason why his team didn't finish first. What to do, what to do…

The answer suddenly came to Aviel. Why was he so concerned about the placement of the rest of his team? The whole point of the sabotages was to screw everyone over, even if he was collateral damage. And this was a really easy challenge to sabotage, so even if it cost him, like, two points, it would be worth it to mess everyone else up. How big of a difference could two points make anyway?

While Aviel's team wasn't directly working together, they had an unspoken agreement to help each other if they saw each other's sheep. They had all started by working with the sheep closest to them, and then moved on to finding their sheep that were farther away. Some of them, like Luna and Damien, had had a lot of success. Others, like Lyric? Not so much. Aviel felt a little tiny bit bad for Damien; the poor kid had seemed downright dazed when he got to the challenge. So he chose to go with Luna for his sabotage target.

Aviel climbed over the fence of Luna's pen, in which she had at least ten sheep by this point. He chose the smallest of the sheep, ie the easiest to catch, and grabbed it forcibly by its collar. Then, as he kept his grip on that one sheep, he opened the gate of the pen and helped guide… push the rest of the sheep out of the pen. Then, keeping that one sheep in the pen, he shut the gate again.

Aviel then began to run around like a crazy person, flapping his arms and going crazy. The sheep began to run away in all directions, until Aviel lost sight of them.

Perfect.

Aviel kept running around to keep his heart rate up. Then, when he saw Luna approaching, he went back into her pen, grabbed the sheep that was inside it, and pulled it out of the pen into the common space in the middle of the competition zone.

After a few moments, Luna returned with another of her sheep, to find Aviel wrestling with one of her sheep, the gate of her pen flung open, and her pen totally empty. "Aviel! What happened?"

Aviel, short of breath, responded, "Oh, Luna, I'm so sorry! I found one of your sheep in the forest so I brought it back here. But I had trouble getting it into the pen. So while the gate was open, the rest of the sheep ran away. I could only manage to keep this one here."

Luna sighed. She led her sheep into the pen, then went over to Aviel and took the sheep from his grasp, leading the poor scared creature back into the pen. "Well, thanks for trying to help. Now I have to go find the rest of my sheep. Have you found yours?"

"No, I really haven't seen any of mine." He hadn't even looked.

"We are so not getting first," Luna groaned, then ran back into the forest to find all of her sheep. Aviel smiled mischievously, then ran off to actually start looking for his animals.

* * *

 **So, what do you think of this chapter? Did Aviel choose a good time to sabotage? What will Alexei's answer to Ramona be? What language was the non-English song in?**

 **A major announcement: I have a rough form out for IDIDE2! The link to it can be on my profile. I strongly encourage you to start thinking of ideas and to build your characters by copying and pasting the form onto another google doc. But, this is not going to be the final or formal submission form; that will come on a google form later. Feel free to send me sneak peeks; I'm excited to see what you come up with!**

 **Thanks so much for sticking around. I'll see y'all next chapter!**

 **-goldie031**


	49. Don't Panic

_Aelyx Stark, 18  
District Thirteen Male_

* * *

One thing that Aelyx hadn't had a ton of time to do since getting into the Arena was explore. Being from Thirteen, where a lot was still housed underground, the above-ground portion had been allowed to flourish into a gorgeous forest. And Thirteen had been surprisingly good about maintaining them. Having grown up in Six and Two before moving to Thirteen, Aelyx had been amazed by the monstrous trees that greeted him when he landed in Thirteen after the entire military moved during the redistricting. In his free time, Aelyx and some of the other members of his squadron enjoyed exploring the forest in his area, sometimes even hiking up mountains. So Aelyx was thrilled to have gotten up early in the morning to explore. Now, though, he was just resting under a tree, allowing the peace and quiet of the deep forest to soothe him.

Suddenly, Aelyx noticed a smaller figure approaching him. He looked and groaned; it was Nell, probably to talk to him about the Ventus situation for the nine thousandth team. Exasperated, Aelyx got up and began to walk away from her.

"Aelyx, wait! You have to listen to me!" Nell exclaimed, chasing after her older and larger friend.

"No," he turned to her. "Nell, I've already explained to you. Your district was the only one to have its Drawing of Names before us. SpOps kids never do anything without a mission, so Henley must have been rigged in with a mission in mind. And when you told me about Ventus back in the training center, it reaffirmed my suspicions."

"But Ventus has changed from the belligerent Ventus that I told you about. He's really so much more mellow and subdued than he once was. He just wants to… to shake his reputation. I interviewed him the other day and he really felt sorry for what he did. Having a bias against him from information I told you without ever really knowing him in the first place is wrong." Suddenly, a look of recognition crossed Nell's face. "Writing a story without interviewing people on both sides is wrong. Especially when you don't interview the person you wrote about."

"Nell, all of that doesn't matter. The point is, Henley must have been rigged into the Events to follow him. There is no way that he isn't the one who is sabotaging others."

"But… but… that's not fair to him! What if I can get you some sort of proof that he can be helpful?"

"You mean that he's not actually the one sabotaging other people?"

"Yes."

"I doubt you'll be able to find any. The mystery saboteur has been doing an incredible job of keeping whatever they're doing a secret. If you manage to get me proof that he isn't doing the sabotaging, I will be downright shocked."

"What about proof that someone else is?"

"Evidence that Aviel is sabotaging someone is good, but it still doesn't prove that Ventus is not."

Nell smirked. "I take that as a challenge. And I don't fail at challenges."

 _Opening up  
Letting the day in  
Over a cup  
We'll say "Hello, How ya been?"  
Looking around  
Seeing the same things  
Every day brings  
"Hello, How ya been?"  
"Thank you, come again!"  
Some things never change_

"Well, it seems as though we're about to start a challenge," Aelyx smiled. "Maybe you'll be able to figure it out this time."

"Maybe I will."

"Good morning, competitors! Please change into your outfits for this morning's challenge and head over to Competition Zone Two."

Aelyx returned home and put on his outfit for the day's challenge, which was almost identical to the one from the District Eight challenge: a navy blue factory worker's uniform and a black safety vest. Intelligently, he grabbed a couple of bottles of water and some protein bars before leaving for the challenge; the last thing he wanted was to faint like Serenity did.

When Aelyx arrived at the competition zone, which had one long, round table split into twenty-eight sections in its center by walls about six inches tall, each slice corresponding to one competitor. In the center of the table, which slanted in a little bit, was a hole. The key to this set-up was that everyone could see everyone else at any given time, and very obviously too; the competitors were almost right next to each other around the circle! But most interestingly, the table was completely empty.

What could they possibly be doing for this challenge?

* * *

 _Sharen Cantaino, 16  
District Twelve Female_

* * *

"Good morning, competitors, and welcome to another day of competition! Today, we are going to be traveling to our most power-ful district, District Five!" The vast majority of the competitors groaned. "Thanks to Five, and its satellite plants in the wilds between the districts, our whole country has electricity, and they've even found remarkable ways to harness the power of the sun, the wind, and the water to reduce our environmental impact." Sharen smirked at the last comment. She wondered if Rochas had had a hand in helping develop Five's technology. Probably not; more likely, he was protesting about nothing actually useful while other people made concrete change.

"Now, as you may guess, this was one of the hardest districts for us to think about. It's really hard to do something tangible about something that is, by its nature, intangible. But then, we got a call from Six. Two trains carrying batteries, one carrying new batteries and one carrying dead batteries, collided, causing the batteries to spill out and mix with each other. We need your help to figure out which ones are which." A slot opened in Sharen's table, and a platform rose up; on Sharen's left was a full bowl of batteries, in the middle was a tiny circuit with a little lightbulb, and on the right was an empty bowl. "All you need to do is connect the circuit to the batteries one at a time. Once you figure out that a battery is good, put it in the empty bowl. Otherwise, roll it towards the center of the table. The person who has the most good batteries in the bowl at the end of the challenge at the end of an hour and a half wins.

"Ready? Go!"

This was possibly the worst challenge yet. That damn chair challenge paled in comparison to this. At least in the chair challenge you had something to go off of: what a chair should look like. Here, there was nothing. Winning would be pure luck. Not to mention that the challenge would be immensely tedious. There must have been thousands of batteries in each bowl!

Great. Her competitors were now nut squirrels. Where that slang term came from, Sharen didn't know. But she liked it, so she used it.

Sharen decided that the best bet was to work battery by battery. As long as she put the batteries in the right place, she would be in really good shape. Quickly, she worked herself into a rhythm: pull out a battery with her left hand, hook it up to the circuit, and then either roll it down into the center or put it into the empty bowl with her right. They key, she realized, was that the battery didn't need to be fully in a circuit; as long as the wires on both sides were touching the battery, she'd be good.

After a while, though, she noticed that the bowl of batteries on her right felt way too empty. She didn't know how many good batteries were in each competitor's bowl, but she knew she'd found at least twenty or thirty by that point. Yet, somehow, there were only five in her bowl. How was that possible?

Maybe she wasn't doing a good enough job of aiming for the bowl. No, that couldn't be it. Something else had to be going on.

Suddenly, Sharen realized what must be happening. She looked up at the person on her right. Aviel reached over the barrier into her bowl, plucked out one of her batteries, and rolled it down, on his side of the barrier.

Sharen knew that these seat assignments were supposed to be random, but there was no way that Aviel was randomly next to Sharen. If the Gamemakers' aim was to make her mad, or to create a rivalry between them, they'd certainly succeeded. Sharen vowed then and there not to rest until she got Aviel back for screwing her over twice now.

And boy, would that feel good.

* * *

 _Damien Colver, 13  
District Five Male_

* * *

Grab a battery. Test the battery. Put it in the bowl or slide it down the table.

Grab a battery. Test the battery. Put it in the bowl or slide it down the table.

Grab a battery. Test the battery. Put it in the bowl or slide it down the table.

Grab a battery test the battery put it in the bowl or slide it down the table grab a battery test the battery put it in the bowl or slide it down the table grab a battery test the battery put it in the bowl or slide it down the table grab a…

Damien was just fed up. Sure, the rhythm of this challenge could be considered calming or hypnotizing. But Damien was losing patience very quickly. He'd started out well, sure, getting a run of six working batteries in a row. But now, an hour in, he felt as though he hadn't succeeded in finding a single additional battery. His arms were getting tired from this repetitive motion. But, he was also a fiercely determined boy. Sure, this challenge was really hard. Really, really hard. But challenges weren't supposed to be easy. That's why they were called challenges. Maybe, if he kept reminding himself of that, he'd be able to get himself through the challenge.

Damien decided to start grabbing batteries from all over the bowl, not just the top. He dug his hand down to the bottom of the bowl and grabbed a handful of batteries. But when he put them on the table so that he could go through them one at a time, they all rolled down to the hole.

"AARGH!" he yelled, nearly knocking the bowl of good batteries over.

"What's wrong?" asked the boy on his left.

"I'm frustrated. This challenge is frustrating. I'm done."

"Maybe you just need a break," suggested the older boy, wearing a baby blue uniform and a brown safety vest. "Everyone needs a break every now and then; don't feel bad if you have to take one. Maybe you can go walk around a little bit, stretch your arms out."

"Won't I lose then? I don't want to lose."

"Do you think you'll have any success if you keep going while you're frustrated?"

"No. I should take a break."

"That's right."

Damien got out of his seat and began to swing his arms, doing some of the stretches he used to do while trampolining. He tried to transport himself mentally back to that place where he could just jump around and be a kid, as opposed to the stress incubator that was the Events. It was probably just because he hadn't had the time or energy to socialize with anyone, but he really did feel lonely. But he was fairly close to caching up; maybe he'd get to spend time with the other younger kids once he was done. It would be a true shame if he was the only competitor who didn't manage to find a friend after the Events. Not his fault necessarily, but definitely a shame.

Once Damien felt that he had calmed down, he got back in his seat and returned to the challenge. Suddenly, something about the batteries caught his eye.

See, every competitor had the exact same copper batteries that didn't quite match anyone's district color in particular. But when Damien picked up a good battery, he noticed that it had a tiny band of lime green around the top and bottom. It was really thin, one that you could only notice if you were looking for it closely.

So that's how the Gamemakers made sure that everyone had the same number of batteries.

Damien decided that he needed to run a test before committing to this theory. He pulled out a handful of batteries, making sure that there were at least two or three batteries with lime green rings on them, and placed them in his lap. Then, he pulled out one battery at a time, checked it for the rings, and then tested it. Sure enough, every battery with lime green rings was a good battery, and any battery without the rings didn't work.

Damien had cracked the code.

Swiftly, he began to grab handfuls of batteries at a time, sorting them almost on sight between the bowl and the table. He was thrilled to find his bowl of good batteries fill up. Maybe he really had a shot in this challenge!

Damien looked to his left, at the boy who had been so kind as to help him. He really owed it to him to throw him a bone. After all, he wouldn't have been successful without the other boy's help.

"Hey. Hey!" Damien gave the boy a poke.

"What?"

Damien got up and whispered in the boy's ear, "Look for the rings. They hold the key."

* * *

 _Winslet Vwystrom, 13  
District One "Male"_

* * *

This was an exciting day for Winslet! She had been looking forward to this day for a while to learn a bit more about the district in which her older brother lived. Her parents, Jin and Ginto, had a son named Chrysos who was more than double Wins's age. But Chrysos lived in Five, and only came home, like, once a year. This day of competition was a great way to learn a bit more about what her brother did and how he lived!

Wins had a feeling, though, that sorting batteries wasn't a part of Chrysos's job.

Winslet was really glad that the part of her body that was working in this challenge was her arms, not her legs. She was lucky to have prosthetics, but they didn't move as quickly or as naturally as real legs. So having real human arms was quite helpful. But, they did get quite tired. She decided to take a little break from the challenge and look around to see what other people were doing.

To her right was Crixus, who seemed to be doing OK, and to her left was Ventus, who also seemed to be doing OK. The problem was that Crixus was tall and Ventus was tall, while Wins was not. She couldn't see around either tree trunk of a human being to see how the people on their other sides were facing. Liana, somewhat across the way, didn't seem to be doing all that well.

And then there was Chloe.

As soon as Winslet caught sight of Chloe, she totally forgot about the challenge. Chloe didn't seem to be doing all that well either. But there was something about even just looking at her that made Winslet so happy. Chloe was so sweet and so kind, and always willing to listen to Winslet. She understood that gender identity was complicated, but didn't pressure Winslet to declare hers; while Wins was fairly confident in her genderfluidity as it stood, Chloe knew that it might change.

But Wins hadn't formally asked Chloe out. What was she scared of?

Losing Chloe.

Wins had to focus. Time on this challenge was ticking away, and she had to do well. Winning was important to Winslet, and not just because she was competitive. If she won, she'd have enough money to afford her prosthetics for her whole life. Maybe she'd even be able to help Chloe get out of Two and into a better place.

There it was again, Chloe. Wins couldn't shake thoughts of her. Especially since dancing with her a few days prior, she was more convinced than ever that it was Chloe with whom she was meant to be.

No, Wins. Focus! You can't win if you don't focus. Wins had to get into a rhythm.

Grab a battery. Test the battery. Put it in the bowl or slide it down the table. Chloe.

Grab a battery. Test the battery. Put it in the bowl or slide it down the table. Chloe.

Grab a battery. Test the battery. Put it in the bowl or slide it down the table. Chloe.

Grab a battery test the battery put it in the bowl or slide it down the table Chloe grab a battery test the battery put it in the bowl or slide it down the table Chloe grab a battery test the battery put it in the bowl or slide it down the table Chloe grab a battery put it…

Chloe.

Maybe she couldn't focus because the challenge was boring. That was certainly possible. But it said something to Winslet that she couldn't focus because of this other girl. There was something deep down inside of Winslet that told her that she needed to be with Chloe. And considering the amount of time they'd spent together, Wins had a feeling that Chloe felt the same way.

That was it. Wins had to put aside her fear of losing Chloe by asking her to be a couple, or she'd never gain her in the first place.

* * *

 **Sorry for the update late in the day, but here's another chapter! What do you think of the challenge? How many people do you think figured it out? Is Sharen's anger justified? Is Aelyx gonna join in? Should Damien have been helpful to a competitor?** **Also, a quick reminder of Wins's identity: They identify as the male Winsley during the week and the female Winslet on weekends. And this chapter takes place on a Sunday!**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! We're getting to the end of my stockpile; I still have two weeks to finish the last of our stockpile chapters but that one might get a bit delayed. It also means we're getting fairly close to a Victor! Any guesses? Because I don't even know.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next week!**

 **-goldie031**


	50. But You Don't Succeed

_Jessamine Rogers, 16  
District One Female_

* * *

Jess was feeling pretty comfortable after the morning challenge, mostly because of everyone else's discomfort. Nobody really seemed to have any sense of how well they did; the challenge was simply not one that could be completed. There was no way whatsoever. There were too many batteries in that bowl, and even if there was a trick to solving it, most of the tributes weren't going to figure it out. Jess sure didn't.

But now was not the time to fret about the previous challenge; rather, it was more important to prepare for the upcoming challenge. And Jess had no idea what it could possibly be. Power was such a vague concept, and their outfits, a t-shirt in her color with her district color as stripes on the sleeves and simple blue jeans, were certainly not giving her any clues. Or, at least no practical clues. She knew that they wouldn't be doing anything active at the very least, but that could mean so many different things. It could be a memory game, or a mental game, or… or really anything.

Maybe it was best not to think about it.

As Jess pulled her curly dark brown hair into a ponytail, she heard the music playing to signify that it was time for the challenge.

 _You show the lights that stop me turn to stone  
You shine it when I'm alone  
And so I tell myself that I'll be strong  
And dreaming when they're gone  
Cause they're calling, calling, calling me home  
Calling, calling, calling home  
You show the lights that stop me turn to stone  
You shine it when I'm alone_

"Good afternoon, competitors! It's almost time to begin the afternoon challenge. For today, you will again be called one by one to one of the four competition zones. When you arrive, you will enter a room with a large black grid on the wall. A picture will appear on the wall. You will have one minute to study the picture, and then you will need to replicate it on a miniature grid which you'll be holding. You will also be equipped with two buttons. The first is a green button, which will allow you to see the image on the wall for thirty more seconds; you may use it at any point. The second, the red button, is the one you should press when you are finished. You will have a few minutes to reset your miniature grid, and then a new round will begin. Whoever has the most correctly placed pixels completed in the fastest time (all the rounds combined, but not including reset time) wins.

"Until your name is called, please stay in the main courtyard, but you may do whatever you want. You may ask any questions you have in your competition zone before the round begins. Good luck, competitors!"

This did not bode well for Jess. Her aphantasia meant that she literally couldn't visualize images. No matter what she did in this challenge, it would be nearly impossible for her to complete it because she was incapable of visualizing. After looking at an image, she would be incapable of seeing it in her head again. A part of her insisted that she forfeit the challenge; she wouldn't be able to complete it effectively, after all. But there was something in her that nagged her to keep on trying. Jess was cognizant (in a way that many other competitors didn't seem to be) of the fact that she was, in fact, on television, and that the impression that she presented would be her image for the rest of Panem for quite some time, especially because these were the first Events. Would she be able to defend herself as a quitter?

But she wasn't quitting because she didn't want to participate. She was quitting because she couldn't.

Jess decided that the best bet would be to try to find some sort of functional strategy, anything that would enable her to compete. She at least wanted to give the challenge the old college try, whatever that meant.

After a little while, Jess heard her name called. On her way to the competition zone, she stopped by Chloe's house and rubbed the cow's head. Where the idea that the cow was lucky came from, Jess didn't know, but she knew that she needed it now more than ever.

When she arrived at the competition zone, Jess found herself in a small room. The wall was covered from top to bottom in these little black squares, just as Violet described. Jess sat down in front of the miniature grid, prepared to begin the challenge, to give it the best try she could.

The first image popped up. Instantly, Jess began to panic. There were so many little squares and they were in so many different colors! How could Jess possibly remember this image and recreate it?

There was no good way for her to do this.

* * *

 _Luna Powell, 18  
District Five Male_

* * *

 _And I was like  
_ _Baby, baby, baby oh  
_ _Like baby, baby, baby no  
_ _Like baby, baby, baby no oh  
_ _Thought you'd always be mine, mine_

Luna was getting fairly used to the presence of music in the Arena. She hadn't grown up with music in her house basically ever; really, nobody in Five did. Luna frankly doubted that anybody outside of the Career districts really had access to music. The status of the country was certainly better under President Emerald, but it still wasn't great.

But there was one thing that Luna was not used to when it came to music. She figured that, of anybody, Lyric would be the best person to ask.

"Hey, Lyric?"

"Yeah, Luna?"

"You hear music a lot. Do you sometimes hear music in your head?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like sometimes, I'm just sitting and doing nothing and I hear… it."

"It?"

"Baby, baby, baby, oh!" sang Luna. "That song."

"Oh," Lyric giggled. "That's called an earworm."

"EARWORM?!" exclaimed Luna. She jumped up and began frantically shaking her ear out.

"Not a literal worm in your ear. It's an expression. It means a song that gets stuck in your head so bad and for so long that you can't get it out."

"Yeah, that's what I've got," groaned Luna. "What can I do about it?"

"Honestly? Nothing. Unless you get another song stuck in your head instead."

"Thanks, I guess," Luna smiled.

"Maybe you should try going to get ready for the challenge? That might help."

"I guess," Luna smiled. "Thanks."

Luna returned to her house and busied herself around, trying to do literally anything she could to get this song out of her head. But no matter what she did, all she heard was "Baby, baby, baby, oh!" Over and over and over again. The sound was only broken by the sound of her name being called over to Zone Four.

This was good! Maybe the challenge would snap her out of it. It would give her something else to focus on, after all. Luna, as confidently as she could, set off for the assigned competition zone.

When she arrived, Luna was slightly overwhelmed by the number of squares on the wall. But, she figured that she'd be successful in the challenge if she could figure out what the image was early on. Maybe the colors wouldn't be exactly right, but Luna hoped that a color that came close would count, considering that Violet hadn't mentioned anything to the contrary. That would make her life so much easier.

The first image popped up onto the screen. Luna carefully studied the wall, trying to figure out firstly which squares needed to be turned on. Then, she could figure out the colors in the second 30 seconds. That would be perfectly doable.

Luna elected to focus on correctness over speed, and so carefully progressed through the round, carefully going through every row of her little board to make sure that the correct lights were turned on. Then, she went to her second round of thirty seconds. But of course, as soon as she pressed the button, she heard it again.

 _And I was like  
Baby, baby, baby oh  
Like baby, baby, baby no  
Like baby, baby, baby no oh  
Thought you'd always be mine, mine_

Dang it! Luna had gotten so distracted by that damn song that she'd totally missed the colors. She now had no idea what this thing was supposed to look like. Luna attempted to place the colors to the best of her ability, but she knew that this was far from a perfect round. Once she had done as much as she could do, Luna pressed the green button and reset her mini grid. Hopefully the second round would be better.

To Luna's dismay, things did not go better. For whatever reason, every single time she pressed any button, that stupid little girl's voice piped through her head. No matter what she did, she could not focus on the colors, and the lights progressively got less and less accurate. Things escalated to the degree that she was not even able to focus during her final round.

Luna resigned herself to the fact that she would never get that song out of her head.

* * *

 _Sage Davidson, 18  
District Eight Male_

* * *

All things considered, things were going pretty well in this challenge. After maybe two rounds, Sage had figured out a strategy that worked for him, and he employed the strategy through the much more challenging later rounds. And Sage couldn't see there being a more difficult round than the last one. Basically every single light on the board was on! Sage did the best he could, but he was confident that nobody would totally finish it.

After Sage pressed the green button and reset his board, he prepared for a new round. But this time, instead of flashing an image, it began to flash a message:

 _This transmission will send twice._

 _-Start Transmission-_

 _Sage,It has come to our attention that, last night, things escalated between Competitor Lidano and Competitor Klepper, and they have attained a degree of closeness that may become dangerous. We at this point have no choice but to break up their relationship lest it escalates to the point that may blow the cover of our entire operation. If that happens, your life may be at stake; we do not want to see you attacked by someone who believes that their child should have been saved from the Arena instead of you. And others' lives may be at stake as well; you do not want anything to happen to the woman with whom you currently live.. Please do your part to prevent the situation from escalating._

 _Good luck._

 _-End Transmission-_

 _-Start Transmission-_

Sage was still not thrilled by his involvement in this scheme. Did he literally owe his life to the Capitol? Yes. But to break up love like this? That was incredibly extreme. Until he could talk to Ruby in person, however, the last thing he wanted to do was to anger her. Sage was too scared of the danger that he could put himself or Fer… Kira in. He'd already caused one person to lose his life; Sage couldn't bear to take another.

Sage took a deep breath. He clearly needed to do something about this; it wouldn't make him feel good, but he'd probably feel worse and more scared if he did nothing. These moments of pure fear were not abnormal for him after leaving the Arena, nor were the moments of fearing that he would let others down.

He'd let an ally down.

Sage put on a mask of confidence that he was all too familiar with wearing, and made his way back to the courtyard. Once he arrived, he began watching Myranda's house, where Liana had been spending quite some time. Unfortunately, because of the challenge, Sage wasn't sure when everyone would be finished; he didn't even know how many people had finished before him or how many people still had to go. But it looked like both of them were in there. Sage just had to stay on them all night.

That couldn't be difficult, could it? It would only be cockblocking them. That wouldn't be too bad. People didn't mind being cockblocked. Not that Sage would know; he'd never had a significant other. But that couldn't be the worst thing in the world. No way.

Maybe he would be more successful if he wasn't obviously cockblocking anyone…

As confidently as he could, Sage stepped in front of the door to Myranda's house, where he knew Liana had been spending quite some time. He gave the door a quick knock, then listened as there was quite some rustling happening inside the house. A moment later, Myranda, looking kind of disheveled, opened the door. And Liana was nowhere to be found.

"What do you want?"

"I need some help finding something."

"Why are you looking in my house?"

"Because I've already looked around in the other competitors' houses. Yours is next on the circuit."

"What are you looking for?"

Sage panicked. What was he looking for? Well, Liana wasn't there. But he couldn't say that he was looking for Liana… l k… l k… "A lost key."

"A lost key?"

"Yes. A lost key."

Myranda sighed, looking a bit suspicious but mostly frustrated. "Well, you can come in and look, but I don't think you'll find any keys here. I certainly haven't found them. Why wouldn't the keys be in your house?"

"I have no idea. But the key is just not there."

Sage kept a side eye on Myranda as he searched through her house. He noticed that Myranda was doing an expert job of keeping him away from the bedroom, but elected not to push the issue with her. He could probably do so with Liana a bit later, just… not in this setting.

"Well, I don't see a key," Sage said.

"I hope you can find it at some point," Myranda said, clearly anxious to get Sage out.

"Me too." He made his way to the door. "By the way, if you see Liana, can you ask her to go back to her house? Hers is the only one I haven't searched yet because she wasn't home, and I really need to find this lost key as soon as I can."

Sage watched Myranda fail again to hide her surprise and suspicion. "I'll let you know if I see her."

* * *

 _Alexei Roth, 13  
District Three Male_

* * *

As soon as he was finished with the challenge, Alexei stood up and returned to his house in the village. When he arrived, he put on a polo shirt and slacks, then stood in front of a mirror to prepare himself for what he was about to do. He knew that she was already done with the challenge; he'd heard her name called for the same competition zone as him significantly before his name had been called. So there was no time to do this but the present.

"It'll be better for both of you," he reminded himself. "You're better off for doing this. And you still might find a way to be together some day. Neither of your lives will be over because of this moment. You're young. You're smart. And you're both going places. Don't let this define you, especially because you were never actually dating."

Alexei felt bad that he hadn't yet worked up the courage to talk to Ramona. After receiving the advice that he needed from Amazon, he knew that Ramona needed the closure in their relationship that only he could provide. But he knew that the closure he would give her would probably break her heart. He couldn't continue leading her on, but it was certainly possible that this would also destroy their relationship. It was almost as though Alexei couldn't win, no matter his choice. But by making the decision that was best for Ramona, he couldn't totally lose.

Alexei took a deep breath, then left his house and made his way over to Ramona's. He knocked on the door, then waited patiently for her to open it. When he saw her face, happily surprised by her presence, Alexei's heart broke a little bit more inside. He knew he was about to do something that would wreck her.

"Hi, Alexei!" smiled Ramona brightly. "Good to see you! What's up?"

"Can we talk for a second?"

"Sure! Come on in. What's up?"

Alexei came into Ramona's house and took a seat on her couch. "I wanted to talk about our relationship."

"What do you mean? I thought things were stable with our relationship."

"In what way?"

"Like, if not actually dating, getting pretty close to that point. Just think about it! Childhood friends becoming lovers and then getting married…"

Alexei took a deep breath. "I don't think so."

Ramona's face fell. "What do you mean?"

"I just… I don't think that I'm in a position to have a relationship."

"Wha… what do you mean?"

"I mean that I don't think that a romantic relationship is something that I can do. Especially not in a situation where I don't want to lose our personal friendship. Like, I think… I think it would be better for me for us to be just friends."

Alexei could not look at Ramona's face at that moment, because he knew exactly what it looked like: her trademark grin had totally disappeared, and her eyes had become totally glassed over with tears. Ramona wasn't the kind of person to normally become emotional, but Alexei knew the way she felt about love. Since watching the Selection as a kid, she had become obsessed with finding The One that she was meant to be with; when she couldn't find her The One, she would look for The One for her friends. And he knew that he had been her The One.

Until he now wasn't.

"Alexei, I think you should leave," she said through her tears.

"Ramona, I…"

"No. Just… just go."

"But I still want to be friends with you!"

"I DON'T CARE!" she sobbed. "After so long of looking for matches for my friends, it looked, for a moment, as though I might have found mine. But now that possibility is gone. And I just… I need some time alone."

"But…"

"Leave me alone, please!"

"OK. Goodbye, Ramona. See you later?"

But Ramona didn't respond.

Alexei knew that he'd done the right thing in the long run. But for the moment? He ran to his house, flung himself onto his bed, and began to sob.

Little did he know that Ramona was doing the same thing.

* * *

 **Welp, the angst accelerated here! Have you figured anything out about Sage? Will Ramona and Alexei reunite? What will happen with Jess?**

 **A quick note: this is a check-in chapter! The secret word is kangaroo; please rank your seven favorites out of all 28 competitors. A quick reminder that non-submitters can send these in too!**

 **That's about all for now. I haven't finished next week's chapter yet, so I'll see if I have time to do that before Sunday; if not, next week's chapter may be a bit late.**

 **-goldie031**


	51. As I Sit Here and Fish

_Mallory Farro, 15  
District Eleven Female_

* * *

As the Events drew to a close, Mallory had noticed a shift in conversation among her friends. Not that the currently prevalent topic hadn't been there previously. But now that Victory was a week away, maybe even less, the competitors were finally starting to fathom the changes that Victory could bring. And it seemed to be the only thing they could talk about.

"I love how we all effectively have equal opportunity to win the Events," babbled Lyric. "Like, if we knew that we were doing poorly at this point, we might stop trying. But as far as any of us know, we all have the same shot!"

"Unless you've been keeping track of your placements," Serenity pointed out. "Then you'd have a decent sense of where you stand."

"But it's hard to keep track of so many scores," Mallory pointed out. "I'd rather just… let whatever happens, happen."

"Have you started to think about what you would do if you won the Events?" asked Luna.

"What do you mean?" Sawyer replied.

"I mean, if we win, we get Victor status. That comes with a house and money and security."

"But not all that much security," pointed out Serenity, "now that we're not Reaping eligible, so tesserae aren't a thing."

"Still. Panem is far from a perfect place. There have to be things that you want to do to make your family's life better."

"Well, what would you do?" Mallory asked timidly.

"I would probably rebuild a house for my family," Luna smiled. "We lost it in a fire. And while everyone survived, it would be nice to have a place for them to live again."

"Luna, you know you'd get a house in Victors' Village, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Luna giggled. "I forgot about that. But it'll be nice to live there as a family anyway. What about you, Serenity?"

"I dunno. Maybe I'll go back to One, or maybe we'll stay in Eight. It depends on what happens with our visas."

"Your house in the Village would probably still be in Eight."

"True."

"Sawyer, what would you do if you won?"

Clearly cautious about how much she revealed, Sawyer replied, "I feel like I never recognized how much work my mom did for my brother and me. How much work she does. I know my stipend from the Events will help her so much; she'll be able to only work one job, and use the rest of the money to help us find a sign language teacher for Max. And imagining what she could do if I won? That's pretty cool. I could finally treat her the way she deserves to be treated. The way I should have been treating her all along."

The conversation continued for a bit as Mallory retreated from it. The question of what she would do if she won was one that had been stuck in her mind for quite a while. And while she had an answer, saying it out loud was quite intimidating to her.

Because any time she had stepped out against her parents before had led to serious consequences. And while Mallory knew for sure that she wouldn't allow her parents to move in with her if she won, who knew what would happen if she didn't? The last thing she needed was to come out on live television in front of all of Panem and reveal their horrific, abusive natures before having to return to their house and face the birthday belt, or something equally bad. That was why she'd been so quiet and cagey in her interview, and why she'd censored herself so much when she interacted with the others. She knew she needed a way out, but using the Events as a platform to do so could be very risky for her.

Not that still being in her parents' home was any less risky. But she couldn't put herself in any more danger than she was already in.

"Mallory?"

"Huh?"

"What would you do if you won?"

"Um… um…" Mallory hesitated, attempting to seem as though she was caught off guard. As convincingly as she could, she said, "Why wouldn't I also want to do stuff for my family?"

* * *

 _Sinsya Powers, 14  
District Three Female_

* * *

The end of the Events was approaching. And that means that Sinsya was, by default, behind.

Sure, she'd been working on her schoolwork while in the Capitol, but that was nothing compared to working on it with a teacher. Not to mention that the Math Pre-Major track was known in Three for being incredibly demanding, with tests almost every weekday, and even some pop tests on weekend. Missing this much school was dangerous for her progression in the program. So as the Events progressed and other competitors seemed to be forming closer friendships with each other, Sinsya focused her energy on studying, both learning new material and reviewing stuff she'd learned earlier that year and in years past. If she came back even a hair less prepared and a hair less good than she was before she left, her status in her year would be diminished. And that would be really, really bad.

 _I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay  
Watching the tide, roll away  
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay  
Wastin' time_

Sinsya groaned. She needed this time to prepare for classes when she returned! Why did the competitions always have to start when she was in the zone? Frustrated, she slammed her textbook shut, waiting to hear the instructions for the challenge.

"Good morning, competitors! It's time to prepare for this morning's challenge. Please make sure that your competition outfit is on, as we do have a special outfit for today, and then make your way to Competition Zone Two."

Sinsya realized that, as she'd started studying right when she woke up, she'd neglected to change out of her pajamas. Begrudgingly, she went into her room to change into a yellow t-shirt and what she could only describe as maroon rain pants, like one would imagine a fisherman wearing. She slid on her yellow rainboots, grabbed the maroon baseball cap provided for her for some reason, and made her way to the designated location.

When she arrived, Sinsya was stunned. Somehow, the Capitol had managed to build a lake in the center of the Arena! Hanging above the lake were 28 sections of dock. Used to searching for her own color by this point, Sinsya quickly identified the maroon section of dock and took her seat. Considering that there was a large wicker basket and a fishing rod in her section, Sinsya had a pretty strong sense of what this challenge was going to be.

"Hello again, competitors! Some of you may have already figured this out, but today, we are going to be paying homage to our nautical friends in District Four! They are responsible for all of the fish in our diets, and have been doing some incredible work in the past few years to ensure that our supply of fish is both sustainable and not causing extinction of species of fish, which is great! Obviously, the way that we pay homage to our fishing district is by a challenge that involves fishing! This challenge is pretty simple. Each of you has a magnetic fishing rod. You will have one hour to catch as many fish as you can. If you catch another competitor's fish, it will count as a point for you; it will also count as a point them, but only if they have caught a fish of their color to match it. So, for example, if Sharen caught six fish in her color, and Aelyx and Chloe each caught four fish in Sharen's color, only six of the fish that Aelyx and Chloe caught will count. Also, in addition to awarding you points, the number of fish that count for you in this challenge will have a direct effect on this afternoon's challenge.

"Are there any questions?"

Sinsya raised her hand. "May I go get something from my house?"

Violet paused. "I suppose so, but very quickly."

Sinsya darted back to her house, retrieved her math textbook, and returned to the group. This way, she could study while she was competing. This competition was so random and so luck based that there wasn't really a need to try hard at it. And there was no way that a stupid, random competition like this was going to get in the way of Sinsya keeping herself at the top of her class.

She was going to make sure of it.

* * *

 _Serenity Capiere, 13  
District Eight Female_

* * *

This was most likely not going to be Serenity's challenge. See, fishing involved sitting still. And a lot of patience.

Serenity didn't have patience.

When the horn sounded indicating the beginning of the challenge, Serenity carefully dropped her fishing line into the lake. There wasn't really a ton more to do other than… wait.

The first 27 seconds of waiting actually weren't so bad for Serenity. There had to be hundreds of fish in the pond; one of them had to bite. But with every millisecond that passed, Serenity grew more and more impatient. She didn't care what color the fish was, she just… she just had to catch _a_ fish. But for whatever reason, the fish weren't coming to her.

What Serenity didn't realize was that, as time continued to pass and she became more impatient, her hands started to shake, which made it really hard for the fish to attach to the rod. This meant that she wasn't catching fish, so she was getting more impatient, so she was getting more flustered, so her hands shook even more. Eventually, she became so flustered that she threw the fishing rod down on the dock.

"Serenity, what's up?" asked Damien, who was sitting a couple of seats down.

"I can't handle this challenge," Serenity vented. "I don't have patience for it."

"Why not?"

"I have to sit still and wait," Serenity groaned. "And the fish have to come to me. I'm at their mercy. That's annoying!"

"I'm sure it'll be fine. Just… try counting to a hundred. I'm sure a fish will bite by then."

"OK," Serenity smiled skeptically. She picked the rod back up, dipped it into the pond, and slowly counted as Damien suggested. And sure enough, by the time she got to 60, she felt something tug on her line.

It had to be a fish!

Carefully, Serenity reeled her line in, thrilled to find her hard work (at being patient) rewarded with her first fish, and in her color at that! She detached her fish and placed it in her wicker basket, then cast her line again, her confidence renewed with this proof of success.

As the challenge progressed, Serenity found it much easier to wait patiently for the fish to come to her. It was almost as each time she caught a fish, more fish wanted to come towards her. That would be pretty counter-intuitive for normal fish, but Serenity figured the Capitol had done something to make this competition exciting. Not that a fishing competition could be exciting in the first place.

As she competed, Serenity tried to keep track of how many fish of each color she caught. Keeping track of hers was easy, but she was for some reason interested to see who she was helping out by catching fish. She was also curious if the different fish would have a different effect on the next challenge.

It took Serenity a moment to register why she was doing what she was doing, but when she did, she became extremely proud of herself: Serenity was personally invested in something! She was interested in the results, and she was actually trying. That hadn't ever really happened to her before. More importantly, it felt to Serenity as if she were invested in that thing because she was doing it. She was earning points for herself in the competition. She was doing something to make her life better; as a Victor, she could definitely earn the money to move back to One. And this was all coming from her own motivation! She wasn't being told by anyone else that she had to do this for herself; rather, she wanted to do this. _She_ wanted to do this.

Maybe it was because she finally felt that there were other people on her side, who wanted her to do well.

* * *

 _Solomon Mikkelson, 18  
District Four Male_

* * *

If these had been real fish, this would have been Sol's challenge to lose. After all, Sol, being from Four, had a decent amount of experience with fishing. But the fact that not all of the fish were his, not to mention that the patterns of mutt fish were not exactly predictable, made this challenge more… challenging.

That was probably the goal.

Sol sat calmly on the dock, letting his feet hang over the water. There was nothing more relaxing to him than sitting by the water, waiting for that fateful bite. Every now and then, he would feel a little tug on the line, at which point he would calmly reel in his line, take off the fish, and cast the line again. Fishing was really easy when you were calm about it!

As Sol continued the rhythmic process of fishing, he decided to take a moment to look at some of the other competitors. To his left was Alder, who was struggling to reel in a fish. Aviel, almost directly across from him, seemed to be doing OK; every now and then, he would reach towards another basket, realize that it was too far away, and give up. Ventus was funny to watch, because he was so big that the fishing rod looked like a toothpick in his hand. And Amazon was doing the impossible: fishing and breastfeeding at the same time! Finally, Sol got all the way around to the right, whereupon he found that Silas was sitting right next to him.

"Hey, Silas!"

Silas snapped themself out of a train of thought and turned to Sol. "Oh, hey! What's up?"

"Just hangin' out. Fishing. All that good stuff. You?"

"Yeah. Trying to concentrate. Fishing can be pretty difficult if you've never done it before."

"I guess so."

"Have we made any progress on changing the Academies?"

"Huh? Oh, right. That. No, not really. There's only so much we can do."

As any intelligent person would be, Sol was quite confused. Silas, who had been spearheading the whole "make training better" campaign, called it "that"? It didn't make any sense.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we're still in the Events. We have to focus on the here and now, not on something that we can't even really start on until after the Events end."

"But… but just a few days ago, you were gung-ho about this! What happened?"

"Stuff."

Before Sol could prod his friend any more, a gong sounded, and Violet's voice piped through the Arena. "Competitors! This concludes the challenge. Please take your wicker baskets back to your houses. When you get there, there will be a mat in the living room with one square for each competitor. Please sort the fish out onto the mat, matching the color of the fish to the color of the squares. Once you are done, you may eat lunch, and then afterwards please change into your new outfit for the afternoon challenge."

Sol carefully lifted his basket, pleased to find that it was fairly heavy. He lugged the basket back to his house and began sorting out the fish that he caught. He had a good number of his own fish, more than any other color, though he also had a number of Alder and Silas's fish, as they were right on his sides. As he sorted, he couldn't help but think about Silas; after all, one's mind tended to wander when doing mindless activities. There was something off about them; Sol was convinced about it. They were usually motivated and dedicated with a one track mind, a champion of what they believed in. The only way that someone like Silas could be thrown off of his track would be if something caused such a change. Perhaps something to distract him.

Yes! A distraction! That made sense. It was kind of like a switch, changing the course of a train from one track to another. But what could have made the switch? What could possibly have happened to Silas so recently that they were thrown off of the track of something that they were so passionate about?

The other shoe dropped. It could be a _what_ that distracted Silas.

It had to be a who.

But who?

* * *

 **Well, here we have another chapter! Sorry for the delay and the slightly shorter chapter, but camp. What do you think of Mallory's decision – was it the right one? Did Sinsya or Serenity do better? What or who is distracting Silas? Did you want to see anything in this chapter that you didn't get to see?**

 **One important heads up before I sign off: after camp ends on Thursday, I'm going to be going on a writing marathon as an attempt to finish the Events part of the story before school starts in the beginning of September, and as an attempt to get the Victor announced before the Jewish holidays start. So be prepared for an onslaught of updates.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll see you next time!**

 **-goldie031**


	52. Bon Appétit

_Ramona Wayland, 13  
District Ten Female_

* * *

Ramona dragged her wicker basket behind her back to her house. She had begrudgingly rolled out of bed for the last challenge, but now that it was done, she wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed with a book and some chocolate. Breakups were hard, and Ramona was emotionally exhausted. When she arrived, she dumped out the fish, swiftly (and most likely inaccurately) sorted them, and jumped right back into her bed. She curled up into as small of a ball as she could, cuddling into the comfort of her covers and grabbing the chocolate bar off her night table. Quickly, Ramona dove into the fourth book in the Harry Potter series, one which showed the protagonist approach similar questions of love lost. Something about seeing someone else fail at a relationship made Ramona feel a lot better.

After she got through a few chapters, Ramona heard a knock at the door. She audibly groaned, then rolled out of bed, wrapping herself in the blanket in the process. Then, she shuffled over to the door and cracked it open.

"What do you want?"

"I'm here to make you feel better!" smiled Chloe, holding Milky White in one hand and a pint of ice cream in the other.

"Go away." Ramona slammed the door and shuffled back to her bed. But Chloe wasn't giving up. The little girl was incessantly knocking on her door! Aggravated, Ramona shuffled back to the door and opened it up again.

"Yay!" Chloe exclaimed. "Now, come on out. I can't bring the cow into the house."

"I don't wanna." Ramona flopped onto the couch.

"What's wrong? I was watching you during the morning challenge. You haven't been yourself all day."

Ramona felt her lip quiver, then burst into tears. "Alexei broke up with me!" she sobbed, falling into Chloe's arms.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Chloe cooed. She took a moment to rub Ramona's back, before asking her, "Were you two ever dating?"

"No."

"Oh. So how did he break up with you?"

"Well, I guess he didn't. But… but I wanted to date him, and he said he wasn't ready."

"Can you have a breakup without ever having dated in the first place?"

"I dunno. But it feels like how a breakup would feel."

Chloe took the book out of Ramona's hands and flipped through it. "And you're reading this book?"

"Yeah."

"That doesn't seem too helpful. I wouldn't want to read about romance if I were having trouble."

"Well, you're not having trouble. You have Wins."

"But that doesn't mean romance is easy," Chloe smiled sadly. "I want to be with Wins. But he hasn't said that he wants to be with me. And I think he wants to be with me, so I don't get why he hasn't said so yet."

"At least you still have a chance with him."

"So you'd rather be left in limbo?"

"Yeah. Better that than just a harsh no, especially when it seemed like it would be a yes for the longest time."

"What do you mean?"

"I've known him for years. He grew up in Ten."

"Did you want to be with him when you were younger?"

"I don't know if it crossed my mind until he left. I spent so much time watching the Selection as a kid that all I wanted to do for my friends was find them a boy or girlfriend. And then that turned into wanting to find myself a boyfriend. It took me so long to find someone who might fit. And Alexei… well, he just seemed to fit. But now? I feel… I feel hopeless. He was my one, and now he's not."

"Hey. It's not out of the question just yet. You're only thirteen. You still have so much time to figure out who you want to be with. And if you don't figure it out, that's OK too."

"I guess."

"It's also OK to take some time to yourself if you need it. But don't let this ruin your shot at the Events. Imagine all the cool things you could do if you won!"

"Yeah, I guess. Now, tell me about this book." Chloe flipped through the pages of _Goblet of Fire._ "Krum gets the Snitch, but Ireland wins? What does that mean?"

Ramona smiled. That was going to take some explaining.

* * *

 _Mallory Farro, 15  
District Eleven Female_

* * *

Wicker basket in hand, Mallory returned to her house to count out her fish. She was actually feeling really good about this challenge. While the water was, indeed, blue, Mallory had done what she considered to be a pretty good job at identifying the blue fish and strategically casting her line towards them. And while she hadn't exactly paid a ton of attention to the fish as she pulled them out of the water, they were blue! That had to be promising, right?

As she began to unload the basket and sort out the fish, she began to get incredibly nervous. She was just not pulling out any fish in her color! For whatever reason, there were just no baby blue fish in her basket. Fish after fish she pulled out, and while she found a ton of blue ones, none of them were her particular shade of blue. All in all, she had managed to catch thirty-nine blue fish, but just one single baby blue fish.

That could not bode well.

On the bright side, that meant that another competitor most likely made the same mistake. And considering that she had a lot of Liana's fish, she figured that the two of them were in equally bad shape.

But what could that mean for the challenge?

Rather than worry too much, Mallory decided to take a break for lunch and to rest for a bit, moving into her kitchen to eat to avoid looking at the fish and worrying about what the numbers could possibly mean. After a few moments, the voice of Violet piped through the Arena. "Competitors! This next challenge will be taking place in your houses. In order to allow us to set up, please move into your bedrooms, and change into your afternoon challenge outfits if you haven't already."

Mallory listened to Violet, going into her room and changing into her challenge uniform: a pale blue chef's jacket and pants with brown buttons and trim. On the left side of her chest was her name in pretty script, and on her right sleeve was the District Eleven seal. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the challenge would somehow involve cooking. Maybe they'd have to use the fish they caught? But that didn't make sense; the fish they caught weren't real fish. The fish caught definitely had something to do with it, though.

 _Les poissons, les poissons  
How I love les poisons  
Love to chop and to serve little fish  
First I cut of their heads  
Zen I pull out their bones  
Ah mais oui, ça see'est toujours delish_

"All right, competitors!" Violet called. "It's almost time to begin the afternoon challenge. Please listen carefully to the rules, and then you may go into your kitchens and begin.

"A little-known fact about District Four is its culinary prowess. Thanks to its gorgeous coastline and the advent of inter-district travel, Four has also become the restaurant capitol of Panem, with nearly as many high-end restaurants as the Capitol itself has, if not more. And, contrary to what you might expect, not all of them are seafood restaurants! Today, you will be tasked with creating one high-quality dish for an esteemed panel of judges. Catch is, each of you has a limited number of ingredients to use. This number of ingredients corresponds to the number of fish that counted to your total from the previous challenge. When you enter your kitchen, you will see a tablet on the counter from which you will order the ingredients. You may order multiple times from the tablet if you would like, but once an order has been placed, you may not return an ingredient. For the sake of this challenge, there is no time limit, and you may present the dish to the judges at any time before the sun sets." Violet paused for a second. "Yes, you may refill an ingredient should you run out. Are there any other questions? You will have access to a limited number of staple ingredients: oil, salt, pepper, and water. Anything else?

"Excellent. You may begin."

Mallory went right over to the kitchen and quickly found her tablet. When she turned it on, she saw a list of what must have been hundreds of ingredients. On the top, it said, "Number of ingredients remaining: 2."

Two? What was she supposed to make with just two ingredients? Especially considering that she was not the best cook in the world. Attempting to remain calm, Mallory began to think about the staple foods of her district. There was tesserae grain, but that would probably be too simple. She could do something with farro grain, but she couldn't think of any recipes that would work with only two ingredients.

And then, it came to her. What better to make than baked potatoes? They were simple, they could be really nice, and they were easily seasoned by salt and pepper.

Plus, how could you screw up a baked potato?

* * *

 _Amazon Brown, 18  
District Four Female_

* * *

This was absolutely Amazon's challenge to lose. Being the kind of woman who enjoyed staying at home and caring for the house, Amazon absolutely knew how to cook. Plus, it was a challenge for her home district! Amazon had never felt more confident in her abilities, and while she didn't enjoy being in the spotlight that the Events inevitably created around her, this was the ideal situation.

Instinctively, Amazon decided to make her husband's favorite recipe: chocolate lava cake with homemade ice cream. She turned on the tablet and put a bunch of ingredients into her cart: butter, bittersweet chocolate, semisweet chocolate, powdered sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, heavy cream, white sugar, sea salt, a vanilla bean, and milk. Somehow, she had exactly the number of ingredients to order all of those things, with not a single ingredient to spare! How lucky was that?

Wait. What about an ice cream maker?

Amazon began searching through cabinet after cabinet in the house, desperately trying to find an ice cream maker. But, it didn't surprise her that there wasn't one; how many people would realistically need an ice cream maker? She needed to get her hands on one somehow.

Then, she got an idea. "Hey, Violet?"

"Yes?"

"Can I have an ice cream maker to use?"

Violet thought for a second. "You may have one, but you have to use it as one of your ingredients, because it's not exactly a typical cooking appliance.."

"Hm." Amazon took a second to problem solve. "That's OK." Strategically, Amazon took the milk out of her cart and requested the ice cream maker. While she waited for the ingredients to come, Amazon began to prepare her kitchen to pasteurize milk, pouring all the ice she could from the freezer into the sink and getting a double boiler ready on the stove. Then, she scooped up her daughter and a bucket, and ran over to Chloe's house, knocking aggressively on the door. "Hey, Chloe!"

The young girl opened the door. "What's up?"

"Can I milk your cow?"

Chloe looked confused. "Are you allowed to milk the cow?"

"Violet didn't say not to…"

"Fine, as long as I don't get in trouble."

"Great! Can you grab a towel for me to put Lucy down on?"

"Yeah, one sec." Chloe ran into the house, grabbed a sheet, and laid it on the ground. Amazon carefully put Lucy down on the sheet for tummy time, then began to swiftly milk the cow. As she milked, she watched Lucy study the cow very carefully. That kid was enthralled by the animal! It was actually really cute to watch, and kept Lucy entertained until Amazon could bring her, and the bucket of milk, back to their house, calling a quick thank you to Chloe on the way back.

Now, Amazon needed to figure out how to multitask to get this recipe done. The problem was that she didn't want to throw the lava cakes into the oven until the ice cream was done, which couldn't happen until the milk was safe to consume. And if she left the lava cake batter out for too long, the butter would solidify and mess everything up. So, while she wanted nothing more than to multitask, this was probably not the competition to do so in.

After putting Lucy back in her playpen, she immediately began the pasteurization process by heating the milk to 161 degrees Fahrenheit for fifteen seconds using a double boiler, and then flash cooling it down by covering the bowl of milk and putting it into a sink filled with ice. Once the milk had cooled, Amazon got the ice cream base ready and put it in the ice cream machine.

Once the ice cream was done, Amazon took it out of the machine and put it into a loaf pan, then covered it in saran wrap and stuck it in the freezer. Finally, it was time to make the lava cake! Amazon prepared the batter, put it into these small custard cups, and stuck them into the oven.

After thirteen minutes of agonizing waiting, the lava cakes were finally done! Amazon grabbed some plates and plated each lava cake, then put a scoop of ice cream in a little bowl on the side of each one. Then, she picked the best four and put them in the four squares on the counter for the four plates for judging. Luckily for her and Chloe, there were quite a few extras. And Chloe deserved one, because after all, she gave Amazon the milk. She carefully took a plate of lava cake and brought it over to Chloe's house. "Hey Chloe, you want some lava cake?"

Chloe bolted to the door. "In what circumstance would I not want lava cake?"

* * *

 _Alder Howe, 12  
District Twelve Male_

* * *

A cooking challenge! This could absolutely be a worse challenge. Like, literally anything involving physical strength. Or something involving design. Cooking was a good thing!

Now, if there was one thing Alder was not very good at, it was recipes. He could cook just fine, more or less, but he kind of liked to do things his way. The problem was that he didn't know quite enough cooking to have those cooking instincts you needed to cook without a recipe. So while he wasn't bad at cooking, he wasn't great at it by any sense of the word.

The one thing that Alder had going for him was that he had a ton of ingredients. Somehow, Alder had gotten incredibly lucky during the fishing challenge, meaning that he had a higher number of ingredients than he knew what to do with. That, in turn, meant that he could try a bunch of different recipes if he needed to.

Alder figured that the easiest thing to do would be to start with the side dishes, things that could work with many different mains. Green beans were good for that. You didn't have to do a ton of prep at all; just some oil, which he already had, and maybe an Italian seasoning blend. Alder ordered some green beans and the appropriate spices, as well as some potatoes and some paprika.

Now, what main went with green beans and potatoes?

Chicken. Definitely some sort of chicken.

Alder racked his brain for a good recipe, finally settling on an apricot-flavored chicken. He didn't quite know what he needed to make it, so he just ordered some chicken and some apricot jam. Once it arrived, he had a feeling that he was missing something. But how could he figure out what?

Alder began to fiddle around with the tablet, trying to see if it could throw him a bone. Luckily, he managed to hit some sort of button that took him to a screen with a bunch of small squares, one of which had a cookbook on it. When he pressed it, Alder found himself holding the biggest digital recipe bank he could ever imagine.

It was exactly what he needed.

Alder looked through the digital recipe book and found a recipe for apricot chicken. So that was what he was missing: French dressing and onion soup mix. Alder didn't know what either of those things were, but he knew that that was the recipe bank couldn't lie, so he had to follow it. Once all of the ingredients had been added to his cart, he ordered them to his house, ready to prepare this chicken.

Once they arrived, however, he noticed a significant oversight on his part: he had ordered a whole chicken instead of chicken breasts! Alder more or less knew how to handle chicken breasts, but he had never tried to break down a chicken. But he'd already placed his order, so he had to figure this out.

Alder placed the chicken on a cutting board and took out a butter knife. Carefully, he began sawing through some part of the chicken or another, but it didn't seem to work at all. Maybe he needed a sharper knife.

Alder went to another drawer and opened it to take out a knife. But when he tried to take the sharp knife out of the drawer, something made him pause. He just… couldn't bring himself to take the knife.

In order to win the competition, Alder needed some help, either with actually breaking down the chicken or with teaching him how to do it. Or with facing his fears and taking out the knife in the first place. He decided that the best thing to do would be to get his buddy Crixus for help. Crixus could absolutely help him!

As confidently as he could, Alder walked down a few houses and knocked on Crixus's door. "Crixus? Can you help me?"

"With what?"

"I need to break down a chicken."

Crixus opened the door. "There's no way you actually need to break down a chicken. Come on."

The two boys walked back to Alder's house. "See, look! I have a whole chicken and I need to do breasts for this recipe."

"Let me see that." Crixus used the tablet to navigate back to the ingredient ordering page. "Look, Alder, you still can order chicken breasts. Why don't you do that?"

"I… I want to face my fears and use the knife to break down the chicken."

Crixus smiled and rubbed Alder's head affectionately. "But breaking down a chicken is very hard. You might hurt yourself. Why don't you use the knife to cut the potatoes?"

"Oh, that might be much smarter."

"Facing your fears is great. But don't do something that you definitely can't do. Because I bet there are maybe two people who can break down a chicken, and they are Kitt and Ramona."

"You're right. Can you get the knife for me?"

"Yeah." Crixus took out a sharp knife and handed it to Alder.

"Do you think I can do this safely?"

"I think so. Do you want me to show you how to do it?"

"Yeah."

Delicately, Crixus demonstrated how to cut a potato, then watched as Alder did one. "There ya go. Are you scared about cutting yourself again?"

"Yeah."

"Well, from what I see, you're cutting this potato so well, you'll be just fine."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

* * *

 **Hi everyone! Here is another chapter! Who do you think did well? Did Amazon technically follow the rules? How did Chloe do in comforting Ramona?**

 **We're getting so close to the end of the Events - six more chapters to go! I'm working on writing ahead a bit, so hopefully all of the chapters will be ready before I go back to school in two weeks. Updates are going to be on Wednesdays for the foreseeable future, so keep an eye out for that.**

 **I'll see you next week!**

 **goldie031**


	53. And Into the Forest

_Luna Powell, 18  
District Five Female_

* * *

The Events were passing by really quickly! Luna was shocked when she woke up and realized that there were just three days left until competition was done and she could go home. Home to her family and friends. Home to school, to being the one with a shot to make a living. Home to a lot of catching up to do.

As she'd become accustomed to doing, Luna got dressed right into the competition outfit set out for her: an orange and bright pink plaid flannel shirt, pink overalls, hiking boots, and an orange bandana. Clearly, they had to be honoring Seven.

A lumberjack's day meant a lumberjack's breakfast! Excitedly, Luna ordered a large plate of pancakes, butter, and syrup, then sat down to eat the fluffy flapjacks. After following them up with a bottle of water, Luna stretched out for a little bit to prepare for the day's challenge. More likely than not, it was going to require some upper body strength, so her arms needed to be ready. Once she had done what she needed to do to get ready, she went out into the courtyard where the other competitors were milling around to find her friends. The first person she spotted was Sawyer, who was sitting and resting under a tall tree, as usual.

"Good morning, Sawyer!"

"Good morning, Luna! How'd you sleep?"

"Pretty well. Are you ready for today's challenges?"

"I need to be ready. It's my district!"

"Oh, right. I forgot you're from Seven."

Sawyer pointed to her forest green bandana. "Really?"

"Yeah, I don't really think about these kinds of things. At least your plaid looks decent."

"What do you mean?"

"Purple and forest green? Not the most horrendous pairing. That would go to me: I have magenta and orange."

"That's fair."

 _It's not that unusual  
When everything is beautiful  
It's just another ordinary miracle today  
The sky knows when it's time to snow  
Don't need to teach a seed to grow  
It's just another ordinary miracle today_

"Good morning, competitors! It's almost time to begin the next competition. For today's challenge, I will be explaining the rules before we go to the competition zone, because I do not want anyone playing with the equipment for the challenge before they understand how to use it.

"As you may have guessed, today we will be honoring the great forests of District Seven! The lumberjacks and janes who live there work long, dangerous, and sometimes solitary hours in the woods to cut down the trees to create the wood that keeps our country running. We are so thankful for these people who help to keep our country running.

"During those long days in the forest, woodcutters would need to find ways to occupy themselves. One common way they used to pass the time was ax-throwing. Yep, they would take their axes and throw them at trees. And as we don't really want you to be cutting down trees, this is the next best thing!

"For safety purposes, you will be directed via your watch to a specific tree in the forest. Once there, you will find two magnetic axes: a green ax and a red ax. You will choose a competitor on the watch, then throw the appropriate ax at the tree from behind the line. If you hit the tree with the green ax, that competitor will gain points. If you hit the tree with the red ax, however, that competitor will get a strike. Nine strikes and you are eliminated, your point total locked in. However, you will not know when other competitors have been eliminated. The competition will end after two hours regardless of how many strikes everyone has.

"While these axes have not been sharpened, you are still throwing sticks. Please, please, be careful. Do not return to your house until you have been instructed to do so, because you may walk between a competitor and their tree and get hurt. Do not hit yourself intentionally with the stick. Do not intentionally hit any other tree with the stick. In short, we are trusting you to be careful, as you are all mature teenagers. Please prove us right.

"At this time, please follow your watch to your tree. Do not pick up an ax to begin until you hear the gong. Good luck!"

As Violet explained the rules, Luna noticed a number of the competitors lock eyes with each other and mouth to each other or wink to each other across the circle. There was a buzz of excited energy among the other competitors.

What was going on?

* * *

 _Sawyer Burns, 18  
District Seven Female_

* * *

Once Violet finished going over the instructions for the challenge, Sawyer began to follow her watch to her tree. But before she could take two steps, she felt a tap on her shoulder. "What do you want?"

"Oh, hi! I'm Nell. Have you thought about what you're going to do for your first throw?"

"No. Why?"

"I promise that I won't target you at all if you use your first throw to give Aviel Nitsa a strike."

Sawyer was caught off guard. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you will not get any strikes from me if you use your first throw to give Aviel a strike."

"Why?"

"Because it's time to give him a taste of his own medicine. Look, we don't have much time. Is that a yes or a no?"

"Why me?"

"You're from Seven. You have to have good aim. And we need somebody with good aim."

"I need to weigh the pros and cons. Let me think about it on my way to my tree."

"Fine. But please do it. Your success depends on it." And with that, Nell walked away.

Sawyer was incredibly confused. As she walked, following her watch's directions, she attempted to process what Nell had insinuated. Was Aviel really doing things to directly harm other competitors during the Events? She hadn't been affected at all, at least as far as she knew. But what he was doing certainly wasn't right.

But that begged the question: should she do anything about it? More importantly, what was the right thing to do?

On the one hand, if Aviel had actively been harming competitors, it would do well for him to get a taste of his own medicine. Deliberately targeting him was definitely the way to do so. And Sawyer was impressed by the group who was taking a stand for what they felt was right by doing something about it. In a purely theoretical sense, it was best to be with the side that was in the right. But there were two things stopping her from fully joining them and doing what they wanted.

The first was the question of how Aviel was being portrayed to the public. While, from the perspective of those in the Events, Aviel was the bad guy, for all they knew, he was the hero of the Events to the Capitol public. After all, they did enjoy lying and backstabbing in the Games. Why not enjoy it again in the Events? Perhaps by stepping in and standing up to him, especially when (and here was the second reason) she didn't have any proof of what he was doing. He hadn't harmed her or, to her knowledge, anyone with whom she was friends. Did she have a place meddling in something that really wasn't her business? She wasn't getting hurt or getting in trouble, so why get herself involved?

Because it was probably the right thing to do.

But was it?

Sawyer finally arrived at her station for this competition. The Capitol was really taking safety into account; Sawyer didn't see anyone else's station anywhere near hers. As Violet had described, in front of her was a big tree with some form of screen wrapped around the trunk. Next to her was a rack holding her axes, and on the ground was the line from which she had to throw the ax.

Before the challenge started, Sawyer really wanted to take a practice throw, even though Violet had specifically said not to pick up an ax until the gong sounded. While Sawyer was from Seven, she hadn't spent a ton of time in the woods throwing axes. In fact, she would not have considered herself particularly good at it. Hopefully, the simple fact that she was from Seven would be of help to her.

Suddenly, she had a brilliant idea of how she could appease both sides. Nell hadn't said, "Throw until you give Aviel a strike." She said, "Use your first throw to give Aviel Nitsa a strike," assuming that Sawyer would hit the tree on her first shot. If she threw at the tree and missed, she would keep her word to Nell, but she wouldn't get any blood on her hands by getting involved in a situation that wasn't hurting her. If she hit it, she was helping Nell and doing what she guessed was the right thing in the situation.

When the gong sounded, Sawyer programmed the tree for Aviel's color. Then, she grabbed the red ax and took her practice shot at the tree. Unfortunately for Nell, it missed.

Oh, well. Less blood on Sawyer's hands.

* * *

 _Liana Klepper, 16  
District Nine Female_

* * *

Liana didn't exactly have a strategy going into the challenge, primarily because she wasn't quite sure how other people would approach the challenge. She could be aggressive, attacking other people more, or she could be defensive, focusing on getting points for herself rather than worrying about what other people were doing. That was probably her best bet for getting the highest number of points.

When the gong sounded, Liana programmed the tree for her own color, double-checking that it was the correct shade of blue. Then, she began to take shots at the tree, as quickly as she could, as an attempt to get as many points as she could. She wasn't really good at ax throwing, but she did have a decent concept of how to do it. As the challenge progressed, she found herself falling into a comfortable rhythm. More importantly, it got to the point where she would know if a throw would hit the tree as soon as it left her hand. So by the time the gong sounded signaling the end of the challenge, Liana was feeling fairly confident in herself. She hadn't been perfect, but she'd gotten a lot of shots in on the tree. More importantly, she hadn't been cut off by strikes; that was a good sign, as it meant that she hadn't made any enemies.

Had anyone made enemies?

Someone probably had.

After the challenge, Liana returned to her house, getting ready to have Myranda over for dinner that night. Hopefully, Sage wouldn't be tagging along. That boy had been right alongside either her or Myranda almost constantly for the past two days. It was almost as though he was in love with one or the other of them and was doing everything he could to either force his way in until she loved him back, or as if he was so jealous that he was trying to make it so that the two women couldn't date.

Either way, it was annoying, and it needed to stop.

When Liana got back, however, she found a tablet waiting for her on the kitchen counter. Apprehensively, she took the tablet and turned it on. Waiting for her on the tablet was a message from President Emerald.

 _Dear Liana,_

 _I understand that, over the course of the Events, you have become close to Myranda Lidano in a romantic and sexual way. While I understand that it is normal for an adolescent to want to explore sexual desires, I must say that it is inappropriate for someone of your status in the country to be doing so in such an important venue. More importantly, it is a national security risk for you to be in a close relationship with Myranda. We will discuss this matter further when you return._

 _President Emerald_

A national security risk? How the hell could dating a girl from the next district over be a national security risk? Ruby was just trying to get in the way of her feelings. She would never understand Liana, no matter how she tried, and her attempt to validate Liana's feelings while simultaneously getting in the way of them was infuriating. Ruby had no place telling Liana what to do. Not now, not ever.

If she'd been hesitant in any way to date Myranda before, it had now gone out the window.

Liana elected to take her frustration out on the chicken she needed to flatten for her recipe. She took some chicken breasts out of the fridge, wrapped them in saran wrap, and began to slam them with a mallet.

There was something quite refreshing about taking one's anger out on something fleshy. Liana wasn't normally the kind of person to get mad about this. But Liana had been suppressed by her family so many times; being in the spotlight in an auxiliary fashion as the president's daughter-in-law's niece was still so oppressing. And in the pressure cooker of the Events, her anger and emotions were heightened. Sure, she was thankful for the opportunities that being in the President's inner circle provided. But this was finally her chance to be her own person, away from her family, where she could do her own thing. And she hated that her family was infringing on her ability to do that.

She hadn't even asked for this life. Why was it being forced on her?

* * *

 _Kitt Mosley, 17  
District Ten Male_

* * *

It would be accurate to say that Kitt's goal entering the Events was to find a girl. And it would also be accurate to say that he had had no success thus far. For whatever reason, the girls did not seem to be interested in him. Maybe they just didn't like his District Ten charm. There was a very specific way in which a guy got a girl in Ten, and maybe it didn't translate well to people from other districts.

Or maybe it was him. Maybe flirting with them the way he had been just… wasn't the right way to go. Maybe he was being too forward, or too sexual, or too… something. It didn't matter what it was; it was taking a toll on Kitt. Rejection had a wonderful way of chiseling away at every bit of confidence that you ever had until your opinion of yourself was lower than it had ever been.

At least Kitt had one more shot to boost his self-esteem (and his ego).

Her name was Mallory.

Mal was a little bit young for Kitt, at fifteen to his seventeen. But she did live in Eleven, which was right next door to Kitt's home district of Ten, which was definitely a redeeming factor. And he hadn't really talked to her because she was quite quiet, so hopefully she was as kind as she seemed from afar. Maybe she'd be kind enough to give him a chance; that was more than most of the other girls had done.

With as much confidence as he could muster after so much rejection, Kitt went over to Mallory's house and knocked on the door. After a few moments, the door opened. "Hello?"

"Hi, Mallory. What's going on?"

"Not much. How are you?"

"I'm… I'm… I'm fine."

Kitt couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to talk to her. He couldn't face rejection one more time. Embarrassed, Kitt turned around and ran away, back to his house. Kitt threw open the door, ran up to his bedroom, and flopped face down on his bed. He was never going to get a girl, never going to find someone to be friends with and to settle down with and to make a family with. If he couldn't find someone here, he most likely wouldn't have any luck anywhere.

Ever.

If he were at home, Kitt would at least have some friends to support him and get him out of this sort of funk. A little nagging logical part of his brain told him that not having success with this group of people meant nothing about his long-term relationship potential. But he had spent so much time focusing on girls here that he hadn't put any effort into making regular friends. He didn't have anybody to support him now when he needed it the most.

Suddenly, Kitt heard a knocking at his door.

Nobody ever knocked at his door.

Kitt didn't want to get his hopes up that it could maybe be a girl. He'd already had his heart broken so many times, he couldn't mentally take having it broken again. The person was probably trying to find someone else's house; there were lots of competitors whose color was green, after all.

But there it was again: a strong rap at his door. Kitt couldn't just ignore whoever this was; clearly, they wanted to talk to him. He was going to have to face whoever they were, and whatever rejection came along with it.

Kitt got out of bed and washed his face. Then, straightening out his overalls and putting on as confident of a face as he could muster, he made his way over to the door. Peeking out the peephole, he was shocked to find Mallory standing there.

The girl away from whom he had just run.

The girl in front of whom he had been more embarrassed than ever before.

She had come back for him.

Kitt opened the door just a crack. "Hi, Mallory."

"Hey."

* * *

 **Well, there's the chapter, folks! What do you think? Is Liana's anger justified? Did Sawyer do the right thing? What will happen with Kitt and Mallory?**

 **I have a new SYOT up, the sequel to this story! It doesn't reveal anything about the Victor, but I'd love as many submissions as possible! I can't wait to see what you come up with.**

 **I'll see you next week!**

 **-goldie031**


	54. A Time to Build Up

_Morrel Elmwyner, 14  
District Seven Male_

* * *

Morrel was fairly confident that the Capitol was not expected him and Sawyer to be the ones who were picked from Seven. There could not be two people who were less like lumberjacks in the entire district. Morrel had never even touched an axe in his life! And he kind of doubted that Sawyer had either.

On the bright side, Morrel had figured out the Capitol's pattern by that point. Normally, the morning challenge wouldn't be directly repeated in the afternoon. So Morrel could only hope that the afternoon challenge was something that didn't break the pattern. He really wasn't strong enough to cut down a tree, after all.

Once he was finished with his lunch, Morrel went into his room to check for another outfit for the afternoon, but there was none. Morrel wondered if that meant that the afternoon challenge would be lumberjack related, or if they were simply staying in these outfits for aesthetic purposes, rather than for challenge-specific purposes.

He was hoping for the latter.

 _On these walls I hang wonderful pictures.  
Through this window I can watch the seasons change.  
By this lamp I can read, and I, I am set free!  
And when it's cold outside I feel no fear!  
Even in the winter storms, I am warmed by a small but stubborn fire.  
And there is no-where I would rather be._

"All right, competitors! It's almost time to begin the afternoon competition. For this challenge, we will again be using the competition group format. So, please listen to your name and go to the appropriate competition zone.

"Group One, to Zone One, is Henley, Aelyx, Alexei, Myranda, Sawyer, Winsley, and Chloe. Group Two, going to Zone Two, is Crixus, Sinsya, Nell, Silas, Aviel, Alder, and Sharen. Group Three, to Zone Three, is Kitt, Ventus, Sage, Solomon, Lyric, Amazon, and Liana. And Group Four, to Zone Four, is Damien, Jessamine, Luna, Mallory, Serenity, Morrel, and Ramona. Please go to those competition zones now, and then I will explain the challenge."

Morrel smiled as Chloe bolted over to Wins, ecstatic to be in the same group as her best friend. And he also noticed that Ramona and Alexei were in separate groups, which seemed to be a good thing, considering that Ramona's face was still very tear-stained. And he was in a group with Ramona too, which was really nice. Morrel liked Ramona as a friend. She was a sweet girl, even if she wasn't the most intelligent person in his social circles. So he hoped that he could find a way to help his friend snap out of this funk.

When he got to his competition zone, Morrel was instantly overwhelmed by the challenge. He was faced with a large pile of giant logs in various different shapes. Some of the logs were bigger than he! This was gonna be a doozy of a challenge.

Violet began to explain the challenge. "One hallmark of the lumberjacks and janes of ancient times was that they frequently lived in these log cabins deep in the woods. There, they would pass their time becoming one with nature, living among the trees that they cut down and took care of. Today, we will be constructing our own log challenges! In front of you are exactly the number of logs you need to build a log cabin. All you have to do is build it! And, of course, we won't be giving you the instructions. But, just as in the other group challenges, everyone in the group that finishes first will move up a spot. So it would certainly benefit you to work together.

"The challenge will begin at the sound of the gong. Good luck!"

Morrel had a pretty bad feeling about his group. With the exception of Luna, everyone in the group was fifteen or younger, and none of them were particularly tall. Working with such large pieces of wood, no matter how light they turned out to be, would be a major challenge for such small people. On the bright side, this was effectively a puzzle competition. So, as long as they could figure out a way for one of them to build the cabin, it should be possible for all of them to do it. They just needed to keep calm and be patient. That wouldn't be too hard, right?

* * *

 _Serenity Capiere, 13  
District Eight Female_

* * *

Just looking at the materials for this challenge overwhelmed Serenity. The sheer size of the pieces was already enough to freak someone out. But there were also so many of them! And because they were black, it was hard to distinguish the pieces from each other. Serenity just didn't see a possible way to complete the challenge.

When the gong sounded, Serenity froze in place. She couldn't even think of where to start on this one. The pile of pieces was just so big and so dark and so imposing for someone of her size, she didn't even know where to begin. Feeling defeated, Serenity sat down and rested on her pile of logs. She just… didn't see any way to accomplish this task.

But then, Damien came over to her. "Hey, Serenity! What's up?"

"I just… I feel really overwhelmed by this challenge. The pieces are so big, and piled up so high! I… I can't do this."

"Of course you can," smiled Damien.

"But the pieces are so big! And they're all piled up! I don't know how anybody would be able to do this."

"I'm more than already halfway done."

"What? How is that possible?"

Damien smiled. "Instead of looking at the big picture, I started with the little details. Try to sort your logs out. Maybe that'll give you a clue."

Serenity nodded. She began to sort her logs into piles by size and shape, separated at the four corners of her area. One pile was smaller logs, one was larger logs, and one was for these weird triangular roof pieces. She was pleased to discover that the pieces weren't all that heavy, just really, really big, certainly taller than her. But, they were much easier to move with help, so Serenity was glad that Damien was finished enough to help her out. The pieces also looked really familiar to her, but she couldn't put a finger on why.

"So if we're building a cabin, we need a door, yes?" Damien said.

"Yeah." Serenity scanned her pieces until she found one large piece with a knob on it. "Like that one!"

"So let's stand it up and build everything else around it." The two worked together to prop the door up onto its stand.

"Where do you want the door on the cabin?"

"I don't know. I'm kinda thinking of making the front and back longer and the sides shorter." To demonstrate, she dragged a long log parallel to the door, and placed two shorter logs next to it. This was looking more and more familiar by the minute.

Suddenly, she realized: they were Lincoln logs! OWhen her family moved to Eight, one of the first things her father bought for her was what he called the "ultimate district kit" – one toy representing each district in Panem. And, in fact, the toy for Seven was a little log cabin kit out of these Lincoln logs! Except smaller. Much smaller. As Serenity scanned out her pieces, she was pleased to discover that the pieces she had lined up very well with the breakdown of pieces in the kit.

How she remembered that, she would never know. But she was certainly grateful for it.

"Damien, they're Lincoln logs. It's an exact replica of a Lincoln log set Eight makes."

Damien was stunned. "So do you know how to build it?"

"I mean, in theory. I know what this should look like at the end of the day. I just don't remember off the top of my head exactly how to get there. And these pieces are massive."

"But at least we have a starting point. Aren't you glad you didn't totally give up on the challenge?"

"Yeah, yeah. Come on. We have a cabin to build."

* * *

 _Aviel Nitsa, 16  
District Nine Male_

* * *

Aviel loved group competitions. He could screw so many people over by literally not doing anything! The more he seemed to struggle, the better; that way, people couldn't blame him for messing them up, while simultaneously ensuring that their group was not the first to finish.

It was perfect.

While Aviel might have been able to do things faster, he decided to take a little bit of extra time to sort out his pieces, to make sure that he was grabbing the correct piece every time. This wasn't so much of a problem for the triangular pieces, but keeping the shorter and longer pieces straight was very important. Once his pieces were sorted to his satisfaction, he decided to begin actually building his cabin.

As Aviel built, he decided to skim what the other competitors were working on. As expected, Nell and Sinsya were doing pretty well; surprisingly, Crixus was also doing pretty well. And as expected, Alder was doing poorly.

Then Aviel caught sight of Sharen.

That wasn't good.

See, Aviel wasn't totally blind to what was happening around him. He knew that Sharen was spearheading the brigade against him; clearly, she was responsible for his early exit from the morning challenge. (And yes, he had sabotaged her twice, which wasn't exactly helping his case.) He also had a feeling that the two of them were not accidentally put in the same group. And that made him nervous. Either the Capitol knew exactly what was going on, or they just wanted to amp the drama up with him and Sharen. Whichever was the case, Aviel was definitely in trouble.

He wasn't used to getting caught. Aviel needed to find a way to get out of trouble, ideally while still managing to screw the competition over.

Not an easy task.

Aviel continued his scan of the competitors in his group. The only other person in his group was Silas. And Silas was looking back at him. Now, Aviel had only seen the look on Silas's face a few times before: the look of someone in love. Very much in love.

Hmm. That was interesting.

As Aviel continued to construct the cabin, he couldn't help but notice just how much Silas was looking at him. It was almost as though Silas was obsessed with him. Who knew how long these romantic feelings were resting in them?

If there was one thing that Aviel knew, it was that romantic feelings could make one do really dumb things. They could totally mess with one's perception of what was going on around them. And sometimes, when people were lovesick enough, they did really dumb things.

But how dumb was Silas willing to be?

A plan began to form itself in Aviel's head. What if he could use Silas's romantic attraction against them to sabotage someone else? Aviel had wanted to sabotage Myranda for a while; after all, she was the one with the most training, and therefore the best shot, of anyone else in the house. But as long as she was dating Liana, who had governmental connections, Myranda was off limits. But if someone else sabotaged Myranda, they would get in huge trouble and Aviel would get off scot-free. And if Silas was that lovesick and that desperate, they would be easily swayed to do something really, really stupid.

"Yo, Aviel!" called Sharen. "You gonna finish your cabin? You're holding the rest of us up."

"You're not done yet either, my friend."

"Yes, but you could help me when you're done. On second thought, maybe not. I don't trust you to actually be of help."

Aviel decided to start putting his plan into action. It looked as though Silas was about finished with their cabin; that was just what Aviel needed.

"Hey, Silas! When you're finished with your cabin, can you come and help me? I need another pair of hands."

Silas looked up. "Me?"

"Yeah. You've got the best physique, and Crixus is helping Alder."

"O-okay." Silas looked pretty taken aback. But, they retained their confidence and began to help Aviel out with his cabin.

"Have you ever built one of these cabins before?"

"No, why?"

"You're pretty good at this."

"R-really? Thanks."

That's it, thought Aviel. Keep buttering Silas up. The more you lead them on and compliment them, the more damage you can make them do, the less blood on your hands.

* * *

 _Myranda Lidano, 18  
District Two Female_

* * *

That could have been a way worse challenge. Way, way worse. She was somewhere between decent and good at puzzles, but for her, the bigger the pieces, the easier a time she had. So these giant pieces made it super easy for Myranda to visualize the cabin, which was all she needed to succeed. She knew she didn't win; Henley and Aelyx finished their puzzles insanely quickly. But she also knew that she didn't lose. Chloe and Winsley had both done quite poorly, and it took them forever to finish, even with help. So she had to be somewhere in the middle of the pack, which she was fine with.

After the challenge, Myranda returned home to get ready for dinner. She put on a nice sundress and flats, did her hair, and then made her way over to the house across the circle which belonged to her girlfriend. After straightening out her outfit one more time, she knocked confidently on Liana's door.

"Who is it?"

"Myranda."

Liana opened the door a crack. "Come in, quickly."

"Why are you so nervous?" smiled Myranda, reaching up to tussle the much taller Liana's hair.

Liana gave Myranda a tablet. "This letter from President Emerald."

"Oh?" Myranda read through the letter. "Hmm. This is certainly interesting. What are your thoughts?"

"I'm upset. I'm annoyed. I'm… ugh."

"What's bothering you most?"

"Like, how can she dictate my life like this? I'm in such an auxiliary position to the Emeralds anyway."

"But remember that Dania has also been in the spotlight for quite a while, being a Selection girl."

"But still! That was, like, ten years ago now. You'd think the public has forgotten."

Myranda smiled sadly. "But they won't. The Selection girls were like Panem's first celebrities. And if those Selection girls mess up, it could have bad implications for Ruby. For her to retain full power, she needs everyone under her thumb. And it's especially easy when it's so few people and they know she can kill them at any moment – she holds her grandfather's reputation."

Liana looked even more frustrated. "So are you saying that you don't want to be with me?"

"No!" Myranda exclaimed. "I'm trying to show you why Ruby is being so strict with you. Even if you don't agree with them, it's good to see the other side."

"I guess I'm just so used to my mom being the strict one that Ruby's stringencies caught me off guard. And I… I don't want to follow them. I want to be with you."

"I want to be with you too," smiled Myranda. "If you have the energy to stand up to Ruby, I'll definitely support you. But I don't want you doing anything you're not comfortable with. I support whatever's best for you."

"And I want to be with you. I love you"

"So we'll figure it out." The two shared a quick little kiss. "Is dinner ready?"

"Almost. Let me go finish it up."

Myranda followed Liana into the kitchen, reading over the letter on the tablet. When they got into the kitchen, Liana closed the curtain on the window over the sink. "What was that for?" Myranda asked. "I like the light that window gives."

"Sage," Liana explained. "He's just been all over my house these days, especially here in back."

"That's weird. What's up with him?"

"I don't know. Maybe he's jealous? Like, maybe he wants one of us. Or both of us, even. If he's straight, that's possible. Have you seen Kitt?"

Myranda read over the letter on the tablet again. "Maybe he's the national security risk."

"Huh?"

"Look. Ruby talks about our relationship being a national security risk. I bet you it somehow relates to Sage. Maybe he had a domestic violence case back home that put him on a statute."

"There is no way Ruby would have a statute like that expire in time for him to be in the Events. It would be too dangerous."

"Fair. But do you agree that he relates to the national security risk?"

Liana paused for a second. "I don't know. But I have a feeling that you want to find out."

* * *

 **Here we have another chapter! What do you think of Aviel's plan? Should Myranda find out about Sage? Who do you think did particularly well or poorly in this challenge?**

 **This is a check-in chapter! The secret word for this chapter will be season. Please remember that you can do these checkins even if you don't have a competitor in the story; every point counts.**

 **A few plugs: make sure to submit to the sequel! SYOT info is on my profile. And join the IDIDE discord! It's lots of fun and you can liveblog and talk about the characters and chapters and such.**

 **I'll see you next Wednesday with another district!**

 **-goldie031**


	55. Maybe I'm Doing Something Right

Elizah Klepper Emerald was not the most forceful person in the government. And, frankly, she didn't need to be. Her role as Secretary of the Arts was basically to make sure that the arts initiatives that had been implemented since the Selection were actually being executed and working on expanding them to the districts. She actually enjoyed her job a lot; while it was pretty removed from what most of her husband's family did, it was a way to be a part of the family business while still doing things that she truly loved.

But, she had learned from her mother-in-law how to be forceful when she needed to be. And now was precisely the time to use her forceful points.

"Garnet!" she called, hunting down her husband.

"Yes?"

"You need to go talk to your mother about what she's doing with Liana and Myranda."

"Why? What do you mean?"

Elizah pulled up the feed of Myranda and Liana's house on Garnet's computer. "Look. You can see the tablet on this camera. Your mom is trying to forcefully keep them apart."

Garnet signed. "I know. She's just worried about the whole Dania Lidano-Dania Klepper situation. While I'm frustrated too, I do see her concerns. But I think she's going a bit too far."

"But she could just move Dania Lidano! We put her in Two as a trainer in the first place."

"It's not that easy."

"Well, I don't like seeing my niece be in this position where she can't be herself. It's one thing to create an image of yourself, it's quite another to suppress an emotion like love. And because most of the country doesn't see the behind-the-scenes, she's messing up her own image."

Garnet sat up. "Messing up her own image. That's an interesting angle. I never thought about pulling that card before. I'll try that tomorrow."

"You'd better."

The next morning, Garnet hunted down his mother in the Gamemakers' Center. He was a bit nervous about this confrontation, despite the fact that he knew that his wife was right. What Ruby was doing was very unfair to Liana. But his mother was incredibly stubborn and headstrong (Garnet knew where he got it from); trying to change her mind on this one was going to be challenging.

"Mom!" Garnet called, finding her at the station of Barley Wheatstalk, the Gamemaker from District Nine. "We need to talk."

"All right. Barley, I'll be right back." Ruby and Garnet made their way into a side conference room. "I don't trust him. Haven't from the beginning. His name sounds like someone was trying to think of a good District Nine name and went crazy. But Cerise said he'd do a really good job as a Gamemaker and that she trusted him wholeheartedly, so I listened. Anyway, what's up?"

"You need to let Myranda and Liana be. I've told you this before, and you haven't listened. But things are really getting out of hand!"

"Garnet, I've told you. For security purposes, we can't afford to even risk Dania and Dania meeting."

"But, Mom, you're hurting your own image by keeping the two of them apart."

"What?"

"I told you. You're shooting yourself in the foot. Remember, while we in the government have a valid reason for keeping them apart, the public doesn't see it. As far as they can tell, you're just being cruel."

"But we've cut out the parts where they talk about it from the national broadcast!"

"People will find out. Liana and Myranda will talk. There are ways. Not to mention that you could have Dania Lidano reassigned – new name and identity, and then move her. If the Events are seen as something that had more of your interference than the Games, there is no way they're going to succeed."

Ruby looked stunned. For the first time, it looked as though Garnet had proven her wrong. And the headstrong President didn't like being proven wrong. "I… hadn't thought about it that way. Let me think about it and check in with Sage, and we'll see."

"Very good."

As she was wont to do, Ruby recovered quickly and got right back to business. "Meanwhile, I have a question for you, while you're here." She pulled out a tablet and began looking for something on it. "I've been talking back and forth with SpOps for quite a while now about the Henley situation, and we're kind of stuck. Let me get your opinion on the matter."

"What's the question?"

"Whether or not we should tell Henley to switch her mission to focus on trailing Aviel. She's taken the whole Ventus thing super seriously."

"Well, what was her mission specifically?"

"Her mission that she was given was to make sure the Events go smoothly. That was it. She was never told that Ventus was a threat by us. I have no idea how she got that part of her mission so securely in her head."

Garnet thought. "Let her take this as a learning experience. It's a fairly low-stakes mission at this point, especially with two days left. We can help her figure it out by placing her nearer to Aviel and further from Ventus in certain challenges, but I don't think we should tell her what to do. Henley needs to learn to be perceptive and to figure things out by herself, not get her missions spoon-fed to her."

"Yeah, that's what we were thinking too but I wanted to get a second opinion. Boy, is it going to be fun for her when she gets home.

* * *

 _Damien Colver, 13  
District Five Male_

* * *

Finally, Damien had finished catching up on the challenges! It felt like he had been competing almost constantly since he was picked as a replacement. Being able to sleep in in the morning like the other competitors was so nice! He had a feeling that the remaining challenges would go incredibly smoothly now that he had more time to rest.

Then it hit him. There were only two remaining districts: One, and the Capitol. He had the opportunity to do fantastically on exactly four challenges.

Great.

But, there was at least still reason for hope: the participation score! Hopefully the audience liked him. Then maybe he'd get enough participation points to really have a chance at winning. Damien didn't have much at stake either way, but his competitive nature meant that he really wanted to win. And it was challenging for him that not everything was under his control. Usually, when he competed as a trampolinist, he had complete control over his destiny. And when he competed in team competitions, he knew exactly how well they were doing because he could see everything that was going on. The Events were really tough because he had no concept of how well he did in relation to the other competitors, not to mention no idea about how thirty percent of his score would stack up. In short, he was totally clueless.

That was comforting.

 _Everything Charlotte says is a lie  
_ _It's a lie, it's a lie, it's a lie_  
 _Everything Charlotte says is a lie_  
 _You better not believe her!  
_ _'Cause she says she saw Kendra and Evan at the mall  
_ _Standing face to face…  
_ _Laughing and talking and holding hands  
_ _And slurping all the way to  
_ _First base!_

"Good morning, competitors!" called Violet. "It's almost time for the next challenge. Please put on your athleticwear, and then head out to Competition Zone Two."

Athleticwear? For a challenge for D1 or the Capitol? That was odd. But, Damien was not one to make a scene about something as silly as the outfit he was assigned. He quickly put on his athleticwear and made his way to the competition zone.

When he got there, Damien was shocked by what the Capitol had managed to create: the biggest shopping center he had ever seen! Not to mention the only shopping center he'd ever seen. But this was truly massive! At least five stories tall, with hundreds and hundreds of stores. This was certainly a challenge fit for whichever district it represented. Surrounding the mall were 28 kiosks; Damien quickly took his spot by his and waited for further instructions.

"Good morning again, everyone! On our second-to-last day of competition today, we will be honoring the district responsible for everything that you are wearing today: District One!" Damien should have guessed that. "As you might guess, both of our competitions today will be focused around the theme of clothing and styling. For today, you will be creating outfits for a number of very excited Capitol citizens who all have very specific requests of what they want to see. One by one, you will receive the profile of a Capitolite, then run into the mall to grab the pieces to make an outfit that fulfills all three of their requests. These outfits consist of a top, bottoms, and an accessory, or a dress, shoes, and an accessory. Once you get back to your station, you'll hang the pieces up on the rack next to your kiosk. If the screen flashes green, you're good to move onto the next Capitolite. If it's red, you have to keep trying! You may swap out pieces as much as you like to get the correct outfit. Here's the big catch: every single item in the mall may only be used once. So once it's been used, it's out of play. Whoever can complete the most outfits in the allotted time, wins. Are there any questions?"

This was totally gonna be Damien's challenge. Design was a hobby of his, actually. Sure, it was a weird hobby for someone from Five, but that was the incredible thing about the redistricting: someone from Five could dream to be a designer, just like someone from Two could dream to be a doctor. And Damien was incredibly excited about this opportunity to make use of his hobby.

"No, the size of the item does not matter. Yes, the outfit should, ideally, go together, but fulfilling the Capitolites' requests should come first.

"All right, I think that's all of the questions. Ready, set, go!"

Damien quickly registered the requests of the first Capitolite on his screen. They wanted a pencil skirt, a bright pink blouse, and some sort of statement accessory. That was a pretty tame outfit for a Capitolite, but Damien instantly knew what to do about the statement accessory: a giant pink bow. That was certainly a statement! Confident in his plans, Damien ran into the mall, totally ready to take on the challenge.

He just hoped that his stamina would hold up.

* * *

 _Henley Moriarty, 16  
District Thirteen Female_

* * *

Henley knew that whenever the competitors were arranged in a circle or placed into groups, they were done randomly. It was something that, from her knowledge of Ruby, was instinctive: Ruby was into fairness, and things that were done randomly were generally also the fairest. But she also knew from her spy training that whenever a spy was placed into a mission, the randomness could be… set up in such a way to ensure that they had an easier time monitoring their target. So Henley was almost always in Ventus's group – not always, to alleviate suspicion, but often – so as to monitor the target of her mission now that Sage had totally bailed on it. When the competitors were arranged in a circle, she was usually placed somewhere where she could see Ventus clearly.

So it was odd that she was not even close to being in view of Ventus for this competition. How could she tail him if she didn't know where he was?

Like the good spy she was, Henley elected to take in her surroundings rather than focus on what she couldn't accomplish. She quickly scanned who was in her view. To her right, she could see Sharen, then Wins, then Alder. To her left was Aviel, then Jess, then Sage. The fact that Sage was visible was a comfort to her. Perhaps Ventus was on the other side of Sage, and Sage was actually doing his job and keeping an eye on the boy from Six. That, at least, made Henley feel a little better.

When the gong sounded, Henley quickly read the requests of the Capitolite on her screen: A flashy suit, a brightly colored tie, and a comb for their hair. Confused by their request, Henley decided to just kinda go for it and see what happened. But before she could get into the mall, something caught her eye.

Rather than read his own kiosk, Aviel was reading the stipulations on Jess's kiosk next to his. Then, before she could see what he was doing, he bolted into the mall.

That was suspicious.

Rather than run into the mall, Henley decided to quickly check the requests on Aviel and Jess's kiosks. They were, expectedly, very different. Henley had a feeling that Jess's station was on a slightly harder difficulty level, considering her background, as her Capitolite requested incredibly specific items that most people wouldn't be able to identify. One in particular was a stained-glass barrette. That was something of which there was probably only one in the entire mall; Henley had a feeling that there were multiple pencil skirts, or white tops, but the items Jess needed seemed to be way more specific. Meanwhile, Aviel needed a very simple outfit: a white top, khakis, and moccasins. This was probably to ensure that there was no overlap between competitors who were next to each other; Henley and Jess's outfits were both more extravagant, while Aviel's was much simpler

After a bit, Aviel ran back out. And lo and behold, he was carrying the very barrette requested by Jess's Capitolite! Sneakily, he hid it under his kiosk, then ran back into the mall, presumably to handle his outfit.

Henley was a bit taken aback. Maybe… maybe it was just a mistake. He looked at the wrong kiosk. Or something. It didn't make sense for him to be the one making trouble in the Games! He wasn't one of the people she was supposed to be keeping an eye on. She hadn't been told to watch him.

The only way to know for sure was to keep following Aviel. That way, if he was doing anything suspicious, she'd be able to spot it instantly. The only problem was that she had no concept of how to apprehend Aviel. She knew what to do with people who were government targets. She didn't know what to do about people who weren't.

The next time Aviel ran out of the Arena, he was hot on Jess's heels. Jess had two of the pieces her outfit required, plus a stained-glass brooch. When she put them on her rack, however, the screen glowed red. "Where is that dang barrette?" she exclaimed, running back into the mall. Aviel followed her, and Henley followed them both.

Over the course of the challenge, Henley realized exactly what Aviel was doing: taking a key object from Jess's outfit, holding on to it until he had stalled her long enough, then giving it back to her. It was almost – no, exactly like he was deliberately sabotaging her.

That explained why Sage was so unconcerned about Ventus. There was no reason to be concerned! He didn't need to be watched because he wasn't doing anything wrong. And Henley had been so focused on her mission that she hadn't noticed the actual problem. Now, she had less than 48 hours to fix her mistake.

Fuck.

* * *

 _Winsley Vwystrom, 13  
District One Male_

* * *

Winsley couldn't focus during the challenge. He was trying; really, he was! But no matter what he did, his mind kept wandering over to the girl that he spent so much time with. She was just… such a lovely girl. So nice to be around! So kind, so caring, so… so everything.

And yet, neither Wins nor Chloe had worked up the courage to actually ask each other to be a couple.

It was ridiculous, really. The two of them were clearly on the same page about this whole relationship thing. They spent so much time together, they were both ecstatic when they were in the same group for challenges, and they both clearly wanted to keep in touch in some way after the Events were over. And yet, neither had made a move on the other. Neither seemed to want to take action, to take what was temporary and make it as permanent as it could be when the two lived in different districts.

That was about to change if Wins had anything to say about it.

After the challenge was done, Winsley returned to his house in the village. When he arrived, he put on a dress shirt and slacks, then stood in front of a mirror to prepare himself for what he was about to do. There was no time to do this but the present.

Winsley composed himself, then made his way two houses down to Chloe's and knocked on her door. Sure enough, she was there. "Hi, Wins!"

"Hey, Chloe."

"Do you want to come in?"

"Sure."

Winsley followed Chloe into her living room. The two sat there awkwardly for a moment, making small talk about the challenge. After a bit of chit chat, Winsley decided to drop the other shoe.

"Hey, Chloe?"

"Yes?"

"Can we talk about our relationship?"

Chloe looked a bit taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I think… I think we need to say what we're thinking. About our relationship."

"Like, whether or not we want to be more than friends?"

"Yes."

The two sat quietly again. While they felt the same way, the last thing they wanted to do was to hear that the other didn't feel the same way, especially after what happened with Ramona and Alexei. So, it was just a waiting game.

Until Wins broke the silence.

"I want to be more than friends," Wins smiled. "I think we have something really special between us. Something remarkable. Maybe even romantic! And I want to explore that between the two of us."

Winsley watched as Chloe's face lit up, as if he was making her biggest dreams come true. "I also think that we have something special! I don't know if I would have necessarily used the word romantic, but that's definitely possible."

"Would you want to be… partners? Boy or girlfriend and girlfriend?"

"Yes, Winsley. Please let's be partners!"

The two shared a warm embrace. When they pulled apart, Winsley looked at Chloe. She was positively glowing! It was the happiest he'd ever seen his friend… his girlfriend.

That might take some getting used to.

"Is this the part in the movies where the newly minted couple shares a kiss?" Chloe asked.

Winsley furrowed his brow. "I think so. Do you want to have a kiss?"

"Yes, I would like it very much."

Awkwardly, Winsley leaned in towards Chloe, who leaned back towards him. Rather than share anything that might remotely be considered a kiss by anyone else, Winsley gave Chloe a peck on the lips. "Was that good?"

"I think so. But I thought kisses were supposed to be more electric. More special."

"You're only twelve. You have time."


	56. The One That Got Away

_Jessamine Rogers, 16  
District One Female_

* * *

Jess was thrilled with the morning challenge. More than any single other challenge, the morning challenge had strongly played to her strengths. She had worked for years as a designer; while she preferred to design her own pieces rather than work with preexisting garments, she still had that eye for design that made the challenge easy.

Well, it would have been easier if she'd been able to find the right pieces for her outfit more quickly. How was a stained-glass barrette so difficult to find? That object alone had set her back at least ten minutes. But even with those setbacks, Jess was comfortable with how well she'd done. Hopefully, she'd be able to keep her momentum going for the afternoon challenge.

After eating a quick lunch, Jess elected to focus on getting into a good headspace for the afternoon challenge rather than spend time with friends. To do so, she pulled out her sketchbook and began to work on an idea she had for a dress. She wanted to draw out the design because she couldn't visualize it, so she still wasn't sure what color to make the bodice. A part of her wanted to make it the same shade as the skirt, but there was something exciting about it being another color. She'd have to sketch the whole thing out and then decide what she thought looked best.

As she was working on the dress, Jess heard the song that could only mean that a challenge was about to begin.

 _Fashion put it all on me  
Don't you want to see these clothes on me  
Fashion put it all on me  
I am anyone you want me to be_

"All right, competitors! It's almost time to begin the afternoon challenge. You'll be working inside your houses for this one, so please go back to your houses now." Jess waited patiently for the rest of the competitors to return to their houses so that Violet could continue. "For this afternoon's challenge, we're going to truly test your design skills, as each of you will be designing your own final interview outfit! This outfit must be in your assigned color, and all accents should be in your district color; other than that, you have free reign for what to design! Each of you will receive an assistant to help you with the design, but you must be taking the lead on it; this is your challenge, not your assistant's challenge. You are only expected to design the outfit, not the makeup or the hairstyle, but you will be expected to choose at least a style of shoe. Is everything clear?"

"These outfits will not be judged on how quickly you finish, but rather on the strength of the design. With the help of your assistant, you will have two hours to design this outfit. Your time will begin when your assistant enters your house. Good luck!"

Jess was ecstatic. This was totally her challenge! She had an entire sketchbook of designs here in the Arena with her. All she needed to do was take one she liked and tweak it a little bit.

But was that cheating? Was she allowed to use a design from before the competition started? Jess elected to ask her assistant when they arrived. This way, she wouldn't totally mess herself up by using one of them.

After a moment, Jess's assistant walked in. Lo and behold, it was her stylist, Ana! "Hello there, Jessamine," said Ana in her normal, calming voice.

"Ana! Are you here to help me?"

"Yes, of course, dearie," smiled Ana. "But I don't think you'll need that much help."

Jess pulled out her sketchbook. "So here's the thing. I have this book full of designs I've made while I was here. But I'm curious if I'm allowed to use them, as I didn't design them today."

Ana thought for a moment, looking through the sketchbook. "Well, they are your original designs, yes?"

"Yeah."

"So I see no reason why not. But let's ask Violet. Hey, Violet! Can you flicker the lights on in the house if you can hear us?" The lights flashed. "Is Jess allowed to use other designs that she made over the course of the Events, even if they weren't designed today? One flash for yes, two for no." A period of waiting followed, during which Jess assumed that Violet was debating the question with her fellow Gamemakers. Finally, the lights flashed once.

Jess breathed a huge sigh of relief. She opened up her sketchbook to the design she'd just been working on. "I've been debating about whether to match this bodice to the yellow of the skirt, or to make it another color. But I like the length, so I guess for the sake of this challenge, we'll make it all the pale yellow, yeah?"

"You're just lucky that yellow and silver go pretty well together. Are you sure you don't want to go with a more princess-like look?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"So let's make this design as fantastic and sparkly as it can be."

* * *

 _Sinsya Powers, 14  
District Three Female_

* * *

Sinsya was, to say the least, not excited for this challenge. Fashion and design was the literal opposite of math. Completely the opposite. It required creativity, and things that were subjective. Sinsya liked math because it was simple and straightforward. There was always only one answer. With just the color maroon to go off of, there were so many possibilities.

And that was overwhelming.

After a few moments of anxious waiting, Sinsya's assistant came into her house. Thankfully, it was Concordia, her stylist! Violet did say that she would have to lead the design, but Concordia was so competent that she likely wouldn't have to do much.

"How are you, Sinsya? It's so nice to see you!"

"Hi, Concordia."

"Well, you look positively enthused."

"It's this challenge. It's… not my cup of tea. I don't do things that are artistic or creative. That's just not me. I'd rather do math, do things that are simple and straightforward. Not subjective things like whatever this is."

Concordia looked at her competitor. "Well, that's certainly something we can fix, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Half of successful fashion design is understanding math and proportions. If a seam is even half a centimeter off, it could ruin a whole ensemble. Let me show you." Concordia whipped out a tape measure from… well, Sinsya didn't really know where. It was kind of like it appeared out of nowhere. "The first thing we need to do is measure you. In order for an outfit to fit you nicely, we need to know all of your measurements." Sinsya watched as Concordia measured her body: knee to floor, shoulder to elbow, shoulder to wrist, width of chest, height, head to pelvis, the list went on and on to the point that Sinsya lost track of everything that her stylist was measuring.

"Why do we need all of that?"

"When you design clothing, you need to make sure that every piece of fabric is perfectly in proportion to every other piece. That way, it'll fit your body like a glove!"

"But most clothing doesn't perfectly fit me."

"That's because it's mass-produced, not personalized. The dress we make for you will be." Concordia finished taking her measurements. "Now, we can use these measurements to help guide us on how to design your outfit. Do you have a sense of what you want to wear?"

"I dunno. There are so many different options and kinds of dresses."

"What about a suit?"

"A what?"

"A suit."

"But I don't want to wear pants."

"Well, there are women's suits as well as men's suits. You could wear a blazer and a skirt with a blouse."

"I've never heard of those before."

"You're young; they don't really make suits for younger kids. But someday you'll probably be wearing suits a lot. Especially if you like math that much. But suits make you feel so powerful. Like a member of the workforce, ready to take on the world!"

"But I don't need to take on the world yet. I need to take on my schoolwork."

"That too. Now, do you want more of a pencil skirt look, so something tighter, or more of a loose skirt?"

"Tight skirts aren't bad, but a loose one would probably be better."

"And do you want a collar?"

"I mean, don't most shirts have collars?"

"Yes. But some are a bit more understated, while some come really high on your neck."

"Maybe not one that's too high, but one that folds over a little bit would be fine."

"All right. Now, have you ever drawn before?"

"Like on paper? With pens and pencils? No, not really?"

Concordia took out a notebook and gave it to Sinsya. "Most stylists have their own sketchbooks for their ideas. Let's use mine for now." She opened to a fresh page. "Why don't you start by drawing yourself? It doesn't have to be the best drawing ever. Use the proportions we measured out to make sure that it has more or less the same proportions as your body. It's a personalized drawing to you!"

Sinsya was skeptical. But, she elected to follow Concordia's lead. Using the tape measure, she carefully sketched out a figure that proportionally matched hers. Then, with her stylist's guidance, she drew more or less what the suit she wanted looked like, figuring out the fabric, the accent parts, and all of the other little details that her suit necessitated.

"There we go!" Sinsya smiled.

"Now, was that all that bad?"

Sinsya elected not to answer.

* * *

 _Alexei Roth, 13  
District Three Male_

* * *

All things considered, Alexei was fairly confident in his outfit. It wasn't the most creative thing, sure. But it was a nice enough suit, and it filled all the requirements for the challenge.

The problem was that, as soon as he stopped focusing on something else, his mind wandered back to Ramona.

It had been a long three days since Alexei had turned Ramona down. And his choice was weighing heavily on him. Was it really worth it to turn her down? Sure, he didn't think he'd be able to maintain the relationship back home. But the impact he had on her, and on the last few days of the Events, was almost unbearable. He knew that Ramona hadn't been herself since he turned her down, and it hurt him to watch her not be herself.

It was hard to know that he had made the right decision, both for him and for her, while watching all of the negative effects that came from it.

To try to take his mind off of it, Alexei decided to go and spend some time with a friend. Friends were good. Friends were better than wallowing in his own shame and sadness. But who to go to? Normally, he would have gone to Ramona to be with a friend, but that wasn't really an option. So he elected to go with the second-best option: Morrel. Morrel and Alexei were pretty similar: both were young and studious, and both tended to have less than ideal relationships with girls, meaning that Alexei's didn't always end well, and Morrel didn't ever have them. So hanging out with Morrel would be, at best, a way to get some advice and at worst, a way to totally forget about all of the problems he was dealing with.

With as much confidence as he could muster, and as few tears as possible, Alexei left his house and cut across the courtyard to Morrel's. He knocked loudly on the door; after a few moments, Morrel opened it.

"Hello there, Alexei."

"Hi, Morrel."

"What's going on?"

"I just wanted to spend time with someone. With a friend."

"I… I'm not used to spending time with friends, especially with one friend at a time. How does one do that?"

Alexei chucked for the first time in three days. "I'll show you. May I come in?"

"Sure."

Morrel opened the door for Alexei, who made a beeline for the kitchen. "The first thing you need to hang out is snacks! Do you have any snacks you like?"

"I guess I like chips. I dunno."

"Well, let's go with chips. And popcorn. And chocolate. And fruit snacks. And sour candy! Is that enough?"

Morrel looked quite overwhelmed. "I suppose so."

"Good. Now we place the order and wait."

Alexei pressed the order button on the magic Capitol piece of technology. After a moment, they heard a rumbling noise coming from the magic delivery tube. Suddenly, an avalanche of sweet and savory snacks came pouring out towards the boys, who weren't ready at all for it. Soon enough, they were covered in popcorn and sour sticks.

"Maybe next time it would be intelligent to place a bowl under the thingy."

"Yeah, good thinking." The boys picked up what they could of the snacks, then took a seat on the couch in the common room. "Now, sometimes when people hang out, they watch a movie, but sometimes they just chat."

"I'm OK with just chatting. What do people… chat about?"

"I dunno. Stuff that's happening in their lives, I guess. Things they're thinking about." Alexei decided to keep the focus of the conversation on Morrel, so that things didn't become sad or awkward for him. "So what are you thinking about."

Morrel thought for a second. "I guess I'm thinking about how I'm going to catch up in school when I get back home."

"Oh, me too. I have so much to catch up on!"

"It's scary to think that we'll be home in just a few days."

"A few days?"

"Yeah. Today's Wednesday, tomorrow is the last day of the Events. We'll be home by the weekend."

"Really? I didn't realize it was that soon."

"Yep."

All of Alexei's attempts to rid the though of Ramona from his mind suddenly became futile. They would be going home so soon! And when that happened, he wouldn't see Ramona for an unbelievably long time. Not for at least six months!

Maybe Alexei had made the wrong choice. Now that the two of them were living in separate districts, he saw no way of making this up to her, of repairing their relationship, of even remaining pen pals!

Most likely, she would always be the one that got away.

* * *

 _Nell Edwards, 14  
District Six Female_

* * *

The Events were coming to a close. And Nell and her team were getting ready for a final attack.

Well, it wasn't Nell's team, really. It was Sharen's team. But Nell liked to think that it was her intrepid investigative skills that led them to the proper target, and to being able to get him back. She liked to think that the plan for the D7 afternoon challenge to have everyone target him first so as to knock him out of the challenge and render him unable to sabotage anyone else, especially as Violet very clearly said that they weren't allowed to move from their stations, was hers, especially as she'd spearheaded the recruitment of other competitors to help them out. Obviously, she didn't know if it worked, but it was at least worth a shot to give that bastard a taste of his own medicine.

Now, however, the group needed to stay on top of things. Tomorrow morning, everyone who was on board with taking Aviel down was going to meet up a little far away from the courtyard to figure out the best strategy to avoid him causing any more damages. Being the journalist she was, Nell had a few different ideas of how to do that.

One idea was to keep doing what was probably the most satisfying to do: continually sabotage Aviel, at least as much as possible. The problem with that was that they risked making Aviel even madder by sabotaging him again. Not that that was a horrible thing, especially this close to the end of the Events. But Nell remembered something from when the Events were announced: that the competitors might need to mentor the next year. It might not be the best idea to sabotage someone who would soon be mentoring a competitor who would be competing against your own.

The second idea was to thwart Aviel's attempt at sabotage. It was possible, sure, but probably the most difficult, and the one most likely to result in physical confrontation. So that was maybe not a good idea. And then there was the third idea: to get physical proof of Aviel sabotaging someone else. That was probably the most logical way to take him down, the least dangerous, and the most surefire; nobody could argue with hard evidence. The problem was, it was also maybe the most difficult of the three ideas to pull off, as there was no obvious way to do so. But it would be fun to pretend to be a spy!

The one thing Nell needed to do before she met with her team was make sure that Ventus was coming along to the meeting. A large part of their plan necessitated that the person who was suspect of committing sabotages work against them. But before she could leave for his house, Nell caught sight of a real spy running towards her.

A real spy was probably more useful than pretending to be a spy.

"Hey, Nell! Can I talk to you?"

Nell smiled. "What's up?"

"I need your help. I think I messed up big time."

"Why?"

"All this time, I was convinced that it was Ventus who was doing the sabotaging. But I just figured out that it was actually Aviel."

Nell nodded. Everything in her wanted to reply to Henley sarcastically, with something along the lines of "Well, no duh." But Nell knew that answering Henley sarcastically would likely be less than helpful; instead, she'd be better off answering kindly and calmly. "Yeah, a few of us had that feeling as well," Nell replied, "including a few people who had already been sabotaged by him."

"How long has this been happening for?"

"Pretty much since the beginning of the Events."

"Fuck."

"Yep."

Henley thought for a moment. "Are you and these other people doing anything about him?"

"Well, yes. We are."

"Can I join in with you guys? I might be able to give you some good advice."

Nell loved being a step ahead of the actual spy. She did kind of want to keep Henley in the dark, but that could be a great way to get the Capitol mad at them, not to mention that a full-fledged Captiol-trained spy could be a huge asset.

"Yep! We're meeting tomorrow morning at like 8 to discuss a plan for how to take Aviel down."

"Great. I'll be there right on time."

"See you then!"

Nell was ecstatic. They'd attained in Henley potentially the most useful asset to their team thus far! She knew how to work the Capitol, she maybe also knew some of the secrets of the Events! It was a fantastic situation to be in.

There was no way around it: Aviel was going down.

* * *

 **Can you believe we have two chapters left? I certainly can't! This story has come so far, and we're getting so close to the end! Who do you think did well in this challenge? Did Alexei's realization make sense? Is Aviel actually going down?**

 **Just so you have a sense of how close we are to the end, the finale will go up in exactly four weeks from today (assuming that the chapter is finished)! That means that the last check in chapter will go up in two weeks, and the participation form will close in three weeks. All details about IDIDE2 will go up after that.**

 **So, I'll see you next week for the second-to-last Events chapter!**

 **-goldie031**


	57. Let's Get Together

_Aelyx Stark, 18  
District Thirteen Male_

* * *

There was something that Aelyx really enjoyed about working in a team. It was really nice to have a group of people united for a common cause. More importantly, working on a team was something very familiar to Aelyx. As a member of a brigade, everyone was responsible for the safety and protection of every other person. And when everyone worked together and did their part, the results would be exceptional.

So looking around at the team that surrounded him, Aelyx was very excited about their odds of succeeding.

First, there were the original four: him, Sharen, Nell, and Crixus. They were the ones who had first realized that something was up, and were spearheading the push to take action. Then came Morrel, and then the Three Career Amigos, Silas, Sol, and Amazon (except that Silas wasn't there for some reason). And finally, the addition of Henley and Ventus.

Well, there was the variable. Aelyx still didn't fully trust Ventus in the slightest. He didn't understand how it was possible for Nell to shift so dramatically on him. And now Henley had shifted too! another pair of hands couldn't be bad, but Aelyx was still a bit apprehensive of Ventus. The boy from Six needed to do something to prove himself.

"All right, everyone," began Sharen. "I don't know where Silas is, but I think we're going to get started because we have limited time before the morning challenge.

"So, first of all, thanks everyone for joining us. As the Events wind to a close today, we have limited time to fully get Aviel back. But we can at least make a decent dent on him! Nell and I have come up with a few options for what to do today, and we wanted to get your opinions before we actually start taking action.

"So the first option is to directly sabotage him; give him a taste of his own medicine, if you will. The second is to have someone tail him and try to get him to stop sabotaging his target. And the third is to get evidence of him sabotaging someone without actually engaging with him in any way. Thoughts?"

"Well, we've tried sabotaging him already, right? Didn't we effectively sabotage him during the ax challenge?" Morrel pointed out.

"Yeah, but that one wouldn't be called a sabotage. It was more a strategy. Like, when we say sabotage, we mean something that isn't technically against the rules, but isn't endorsed by the Gamemakers. Anything that we did to Aviel during yesterday's challenge was absolutely endorsed by the Gamemakers."

"But then we'd be stooping to his level," Amazon pointed out. "Plus, we don't even know if any of tomorrow's challenges are sabotageable."

"He'll find a way. Let's assume for the sake of this conversation that he finds a way to sabotage one or both of tomorrow's challenges."

"I mean, in terms of concrete action being taken, the best option would be to get proof of him sabotaging someone," Crixus suggested. The rest of the group nodded. "We can only get so much retribution; Ruby Emerald, on the other hand, could do a lot."

"But Ruby has proof of him sabotaging people," Henley pointed out. "We're being filmed 24/7."

"Right."

"More importantly," Henley added, attempting not to sound too condescending, "I feel like we're talking about this as though these are mutually exclusive options. We can do multiple of these at once! There are, what, nine of us? Ten with Silas? That's more than enough to accomplish all three of these tasks at once, even if they're not all actually attainable."

"Hmm. I didn't think about that," Sharen admitted. "I guess there really is no reason why we can't split up and accomplish all three tasks at once. Any objections?" Nobody responded. "Excellent. So let's split up. Who wants to be the ones to follow Aviel and thwart his sabotage?"

"I'll do it," volunteered Ventus.

It was at that moment that Aelyx began to trust Ventus fully. It took someone with a lot of guts to throw himself under the bus, potentially messing up his own game and/or putting himself in physical danger. Aviel definitely wouldn't do that for anybody; by sabotaging other people, he was clearly only looking out for himself.

Maybe Aelyx had really been wrong this whole time.

* * *

 _Solomon Mikkelson, 18  
District Four Male_

* * *

Sol was getting really concerned for Silas. He hadn't seen them in, like, a full day now. And he knew that Sharen had confirmed the time of this meeting with Silas, so they really had no excuse. For someone who seemed to be so dedicated in the causes they cared about, who had gotten Sol involved in this campaign against Aviel in the first place, he was surprisingly absent. What could possibly be wrong.

"Awesome," Sharen said to Ventus, pulling Sol's focus back in. "Just… be careful, Ventus. Don't do anything stupid or too violent, lest you get yourself into real trouble. Now, who is interested in sabotaging Aviel back?" Sol was definitely not interested in actively hurting another competitor. Just like Amazon, he was not was not in favor of stooping down to Aviel's level. And it seemed like nobody else was interested in doing so either. "Fine. I'll do that part. Now, we need someone else to gain proof that Aviel is the one doing the sabotaging. I think that's a job for Henley?"

Henley nodded. "This is what I'm trained in."

"Excellent. So everyone else can either pick one of me, Ventus, or Henley to work with, or keep their eye out for any other suspicious behavior they see. We're all pretty sure that Aviel is the one causing all the trouble, but just in case he isn't, we can't let our guard down." Henley blushed at that statement. "We're going to follow through with our mission on any sabotageable challenge today, all right? So both morning and afternoon if we have to. Good work in advance, and good luck."

The assembled competitors began to mill around and chat. But Sol had a job to do. He made a beeline to the courtyard, on a mission of his own to find Silas.

First, Sol searched in the area around the courtyard. But there was no sign of them. Then, he went over to Silas's house and knocked on the door. After a moment, Silas answered the door, looking rather disheveled. "Oh, hi, Sol."

"Oh, hi? Where were you, Silas?"

"What do you mean, where was I?"

"We had a meeting today. You know, the group of us ready to take Aviel down. And you weren't there."

"Oh," Silas shrugged. "I guess I forgot."

"You guess? Silas, who were you with instead?"

"Aviel."

"With Aviel? Silas, did you have sex with him?"

"Um. Ya."

"You know that's the person we're trying to take down right now, right?"

"Yeah, I know. But… but he's kinda cute."

Sol's eyes nearly fell out of his head. "So you're getting a crush on the boy who has been fucking literally everyone in the Arena. Wait, not fucking. He just fucked you. He's fucking everyone over. Including you, I think."

"But what if we're wrong about him? Aviel is just trying to do what he can to make sure that his family gets a better life. And if we sabotage him, it'll make his life so much harder. This is just a symptom of the inequality still rampant in the districts."

"But do you realize how much trouble he's going to get in for doing it this way? He's basically committing treason. And if you associate yourself with him, you're going to get in trouble too."

Silas shrugged.

Sol realized he was fighting a losing battle. Sure, he wanted Silas to do the right thing. But Aviel had Silas totally hooked and totally fooled. The more he argued with them, the more belligerent they would get. And as annoyed as he was with them, Sol wanted them to feel comfortable coming to him when things inevitably blew up in his face.

"All right. If you want to date him that's fine, but don't do anything stupid, all right?"

Silas looked incredibly guilty.

"You're gonna do something stupid, aren't you?"

Silas didn't respond.

"What does Aviel have you doing? You know what, never mind. Don't tell me. I don't even want to know."

As Sol left Silas's house, he noticed Aviel, looking a little bit smug, walking towards Silas's house. Cheerfully, Aviel greeted Sol. "How are you? Are you ready for our last day of challenges? I love a day of nice, fair competition."

"I'm as ready for fair competition as you are," Sol retorted.

* * *

 _Lyric Cloud, 15  
Capitol Female_

* * *

There was a certain amount of pride that Lyric felt in representing the Capitol on this day of competition. She hadn't thought much about it previously, but there was something about knowing that she was doubly directly representing her home district that made her very excited. She needed to do them proud! But that meant that, more than ever, she needed to be ready for the challenge. She needed to be totally prepared in any way she possibly could.

"Good morning, competitors!" Violet called, catching Lyric off guard. "I hope you're ready for the last day of the Events! Today, as you probably deduced, we'll be honoring the shining center of our great nation: our Capitol! I could wax poetic for hours about the incredible things that the Capitol has created and the positive impacts that it's had on the districts, but that's a conversation for another time and place. The Capitol's industry is, admittedly, the least industrial, helping to run our government and produce entertainment! Today, we'll be honoring the latter.

"You may have noticed over the few the few days that there have been a number of songs playing in the Arena. For today's challenge, you'll be using the tablets that you have in your houses already. One by one, a song will play in your house, with a word or two beeped out. Then, four options for the words that fill in the blanks will pop up on your tablets. For each question, you'll have 45 seconds to answer it by clicking on the correct word. The competitor who gets the most points, wins!

"For this challenge, each of you will have a separate progression of songs, played for you through the loudspeakers in your own houses. So, for your own sake, please keep your doors and windows closed through the duration of the challenge, or you might hear someone else's music or mess them up.

"You will know when this challenge begins. Good luck!"

Lyric was stoked. This challenge was literally made for her, and not just because it was a Capitol challenge. She worked in a music store! She heard music all the time. And she had a pretty good memory for the lyrics of songs as well. Lyric had a very good feeling about her chances in this challenge.

 _I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay  
Watching the _, roll away  
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay  
Wastin' time_

Lyric looked at the four answers that popped up on her tablet: tide, ride, pride, and time. She knew she'd heard the song another time before. After a minute, she remembered. Confidently, she pressed the word tide.

But when had she heard that song?

 _It's not that _  
When everything is beautiful  
It's just another ordinary miracle today_

This song sounded familiar too. Suddenly, Lyric figured it out: the Capitol had been playing these songs before the challenges, and really most of the time in the Arena. If someone was paying enough attention, they would know most of the words of the songs already. Or at least have a decent idea. Lyric just had the leg up on everyone else because she was used to hearing music at home. This song, Ordinary Miracle, was a song she especially liked; it was one of the first ones she learned on both guitar and flute. Confidently, she chose the word unusual as her answer.

But the Capitol wasn't going to take things easy on the competitors. The next song was one that Lyric couldn't remember hearing before.

 _Oh the sky will be _  
And you guys will be there too!  
When I finally do what frozen things do in summer!_

After listening carefully to the song, Lyric scanned the answer options: clear, blue, new, and brighter. They all seemed to fit into the blank, but Lyric would need to think a little more deeply than that. It would take all of her knowledge of music to answer the question correctly.

One thing that she knew about songs was that they tended to rhyme. As clear rhymed with neither too nor summer, that could easily be ruled out. Lyric almost ruled out brighter for the same reason, but it kind of rhymed with summer, so that merited keeping in.

The next thing she did was think about the rhythm of the line. The word that had been bleeped out seemed to Lyric to only be one syllable long. _That_ would rule out brighter, a two-syllable word.

Finally, the word needed to make sense in the context of the song. There was no reason for the sky to be new; on the other and, the sky was blue, and it would be especially blue during the summer. That had to be the answer. Lyric tapped it, feeling fairly confident. Even if this one question was wrong, it was still her challenge to lose.

* * *

 _Sage Davidson, 18  
District Eight Male_

* * *

Sage was lucky that he had a good memory, especially for things that kind of just popped up. Considering that his knowledge of music was next to abysmal, he would be relying on his memory to succeed in this challenge.

 _Les _, les _  
How I love les _  
Love to chop and to serve little fish_

Hmm. That one should have been an easy one. But Sage couldn't figure out which word on his screen was pronounced in the way it should be. They all started with the letter P, and they certainly weren't in a language he'd ever heard. Sage chose one at random, hoping for the best.

 _Goin' the distance, every occasion  
Headed for somewhere out of the way  
Movin' and shakin' every _  
Keepin' us out there, caught in the waves_

Sage scanned the words that were in front of him, but they looked like the same four from the last round! Maybe one of the four was actually in English. Poisson? No, that couldn't be it. Petit four? Nah. Persuasion? Maybe. But he'd just tapped that one for the previous round. So maybe it was percussion. That sounded like English and was a different word. He'd just go with that.

 _Opening up  
Letting the _ in  
Over a cup  
We'll say "Hello, How ya been?"_

This one Sage remembered very clearly. The word missing was day! He remembered really liking that song and finding it quite catchy.

 _Vsego horoshego  
Na _  
Poekhali  
Vsego horoshego  
Na pososhok  
Poekhali_

Now that definitely wasn't English. Sage had no idea how he was supposed to find the word that was missing! But then, when he looked down at his tablet, he found that it wasn't showing any word options. Rather, it displayed a chat notification from President Emerald.

 _Hello, Sage. I would like to gauge your opinion on the situation between Competitor Lidando and Competitor Klepper, and the related security risk. Have you been successful in splitting up the pair of them? Do you believe that they should be split up? Do they seem to be happy together? Do you think the negative ramifications of the two of them maintaining their couple-hood outweigh the positive, or vice versa?_

Sage took a second to think. He needed to phrase his response to the president carefully. After a moment, he began typing. In my opinion, he typed, the relationship between Competitor Lidano and Competitor Klepper is not one that is of nearly as big of a concern as it has been presented to me. The two of them seem to have a genuinely positive relationship, and as both of them are strong-willed, I feel as though the best solution to the possibly ensuing problem is to recommend that Myranda and her family move to the Capitol or District Nine to be near Liana (The Capitol would probably be better as it still has training facilities). Meanwhile, Dania Lidano would remain in Two as a trainer. She would get over not seeing her "long-lost cousin" ever again. Alternatively, we can relocate Dania Lidano to Four, far enough away from Myranda's family. And Myranda and Liana may even break up when they return home! But I agree that the wrong solution is to split them up; it will only create more problems for you and for the Events.

Sage waited anxiously for a return from Ruby, hopeful that his response wouldn't get him in trouble.

 _Thank you, Competitor Davidson. My advisors agree that this is the right decision._

Sage was relieved. He had said the right thing! Ruby had agreed with him! Maybe he was cut out for this role after all.

* * *

 **So the reason for the songs has been revealed! Did you like the challenge? Do you think Sharen and Co's plan will come into fruition? Any other thoughts on the chapter?**

 **We're getting so close to the finale! Next week is the last Events chapter! Also, I changed the date of the finale, so it will be going up SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 instead of the following Wednesday. And you'll want to have your story alerts on that day…**

 **See you next week!**

 **Goldie031**


	58. The Final Countdown

_Silas Rune, 17  
Capitol "Male"_

* * *

Silas didn't know that he could get so much joy from another person. They had never been in a serious relationship before. But there was something about being around Aviel that made them so happy! Silas had been on dates before, but they had never truly had someone who wanted to be with them. And from everything that Silas could see, Aviel really wanted to be with them!

That was a cool feeling to have.

At the end of the morning challenge, Silas was happy to hear a knock on the door. "Who is it?" they teased.

"Oh, you know who," the voice outside said flirtatiously.

"Of course I do," Silas smiled. They opened the door and gave Aviel a little peck on the cheek. "How'd it go?"

"Fine." Aviel sighed and went right over to the couch, sitting down and looking very sad.

"What happened?" Silas sat down next to him.

"Oh, nothing." Aviel put his head on Silas's shoulder, cuddling up to them.

Aviel was not a very cuddly person.

Silas gave Aviel a look. "Come on. You can tell me what happened."

"But only if you don't tell anyone."

"That's what significant others do; they keep secrets. Don't worry. It's safe with me."

"I think Myranda sabotaged me during the last challenge."

Silas was dumbfounded. How was that possible? "But… but why? How?"

"I… I don't even know!" Aviel started crying a little bit. "I don't understand how that challenge was sabotageable in the first place. Everyone was sequestered! She just… she was really good, I guess. And really cutthroat. She must want this really bad."

"Well, that was not very nice of her at all! In fact, it was very very mean."

"And I doubt she needs this nearly as much as I do! Like, she can afford to train. She's from Two. She really doesn't need the money the way I do, so that I can give my mom and dad a better life. To thank them for all they've done for me. For being there for me!"

Aviel was full-on crying by this point. That was incredibly unusual for Silas to see. Usually, he was a strong and determined competitor. For someone to do something to break this kid, this strong and hardened boy, it must have been something really really bad. And knowing what Myranda had hindered Aviel's ability to do just that made Silas even madder. Everyone was trying to win the Events to better their own lives! For someone to get in the way of other people's attempts to do that was absolutely unfair. Something had to be done.

"Yeah. I wish there was a way we could get back at her. To give her a taste of her own medicine."

"Well," Aviel sniffled. "We could give her a taste of her own medicine."

"How?"

"One of us could sabotage her in the next challenge."

"I'll do it."

"You will?"

"Yeah! What she did was absolutely not fair. It's only right that I get her back for you."

"Are you sure that you don't want me to do it?"

"I'm sure. She probably has a vendetta against you or something. I don't want to put you in harm's way."

"It could be dangerous."

"That's a risk that I'm willing to take."

"Even if Liana Klepper could get you in trouble?"

"Myranda impeded on the ability of other competitors to better their lives. She needs to pay."

"Well, I appreciate you standing up for me like this. It really means a lot."

"Anything for you."

"I have to go get ready for the last challenge. I'll see you later." Aviel gave Silas a quick kiss, then left before Silas could see the sadistic grin that spread across his face.

* * *

 _Chloe Antoni, 12  
District Two "Male"_

* * *

Nearly as soon as she returned to her house, Chloe heard a knock on her door. She peeked out to find Ramona and Winsley standing there. "Hi guys," she said, opening it wide. "What's up?"

"We need to figure out what to do with this cow," Wins explained.

"The cow? I'm gonna take Milky home. He's gonna be my pet."

"Chloe, how do you propose to get this home?"

"Not to mention that cows need really big pastures," Ramona added. "It's just not safe to take the cow back to Two. Bad for the cow, and dangerous for everyone else if she gets out."

"But she's so sweet and docile! I wanna keep her."

"Chloe, no. It's very simply a bad idea. We need to say goodbye to Milky White."

The thought of parting from her cow was absolutely heartbreaking for Chloe. They had been through so much of the Events together! The last thing Chloe wanted to do was leave the cow behind. But, she also wanted to be kind and humane to the creature, because all creatures deserved the love and respect she was never given. So, if it was best for the cow to live out its life safe and happy here in the Arena, then she didn't want to harm her by taking Milky home.

"All right, I guess we can leave the cow here. But we're not just letting her go. We're sending her off."

Wins looked confused. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to go find the boy that I bought the cow from. This way, the cow can live with someone. I don't want her to be lonely."

Ramona and Winsley looked at each other, then shrugged. "Let's go, then." Chloe untied the leash of the cow, then led it out into the forest, Ramona and Winsley close behind.

"Now, where did you find this boy who sold you the cow?"

"Somewhere in the woods," she answered.

"There's so much woods around here, though!" Ramona exclaimed. "What if we don't find him."

"We're gonna," Chloe insisted. "I promise."

"Do you remember anything about the part of the woods where you found the cow?"

"I remember that it was fairly close to the house."

Chloe led her friends around the woods, as far out as to every competition zone and back, but no matter what they did, they couldn't find the boy. "Chloe," Winsley cautioned, "it's possible that boy was a mutt that the Gamemakers created. Maybe he's destroyed by now."

"But I need to make sure Milky White is in good hands!"

"Well, I have a feeling that the cow will be totally safe if we leave her in one of these competition zones."

"LEAVE HER?!"

"Chloe, we still have one more challenge to go. And I'm sure Ruby will take very good care of Milky White. She's a good-hearted woman, and I'm sure she'll take very good care of Milky White."

Disheartened, but faced with no other choice, Chloe bent down to the level of the cow. "Well, Milky White, we've had some good adventures together, my friend. We've laughed. We've danced. I've milked you. We've cuddled. I've ridden you. And now… now I have to say goodbye. Adios. Farewell. Adieu."

"Competitors!" Violet called. "Please return to your houses in preparation for the afternoon challenge. When you arrive, please go into your own bedrooms and lock the door."

"Chloe, you're dragging this out," Ramona pointed out. "Come on. We have to go or we'll get in trouble."

"But… but it's hard to say goodbye to a good friend."

"Why don't you sing it a song or something? I dunno. But I do know that the longer you drag this out, the sadder you'll be."

"I guess this is goodbye, old pal,  
You've b-been a perfect friend.  
I- I'd hate to see us p-p-part, old pal,  
Someday I'll get you back.  
I-I'll see you soon again!  
I hope that i-i-i-if I do,  
It won't be on a p-p-p-p-plate."

Chloe could barely finish the song through her tears. She needed Winsley to lead her away from the cow so that she didn't have to see Milky White's poor sad face. That way, she also didn't see Milky White follow her a little ways back to the courtyard until the cow realized that she wouldn't ever see Chloe again.

* * *

 _Sharen Cantiano, 16  
District Twelve Female_

* * *

Sharen stood in her kitchen, water bottle in hand, drinking small sips at once to get her body hydrated. The afternoon challenge made by the Capitol for the day representing the Capitol was absolutely going to be a big production of some sort. And that, in turn, meant that it would be a very long challenge. Sharen needed to be ready for any possible twist and turn in the challenge, or any form of massive physical activity. Plus, this water had electrolytes that claimed to make you more perceptive. That meant that she'd be more likely to find potential sabotages.

The morning challenge was a complete sabotage bust. Unless someone did something blatantly against the rules, there was no good way to harm someone else. What that meant is that her team's entire plan was riding on the afternoon challenge. Not that it would be the worst thing in the world for them if they couldn't directly sabotage the bastard from Nine, but Sharen really wanted more revenge. Revenge was fun.

"Well, competitors," Violet called. "We've reached the final challenge for the First Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events! This is a bit of a complex one, so please bear with me as I explain it.

"As you know, today we're honoring our Capitol. But one thing that those of us who live here in the center of the country frequently forget is that the Capitol is nothing without the districts surrounding it. So, for this challenge, we'll be placing focus on the fact that our country only succeeds when we all contribute equally and help each other succeed.

"The Arena has been divided into fourteen sections. In each section are a number of objects in various colors. You're looking for the object of your color in that section that represents the challenges we did on that day. Each day's challenge is represented by a different object. So, if the challenge for the Capitol was based on the government, you might look for a gavel or for a legal pad. Once you believe you've found your object, bring it back to your house and place it in the correct location in your living room. You'll understand what I mean when you get there. Be careful, though: you may only leave each sector holding one object. Once you believe you have all fourteen correct objects, stand on the plate in the center of your living room. If you're right, the plate will lower you down back into the launch room in which you started the Events just two weeks or so ago. If you're wrong, however, nothing will happen, and you have to figure out which objects are wrong and which ones are right. You must bring back the object you originally took in order to switch it out.

"Are there any questions?

"Please unlock the door of your bedroom now. You may leave the bedroom when the challenge begins, which will happen at the sound of the horn. Good luck!"

OK. So this was definitely a sabotageable challenge. The scavenger hunt ones were easy to sabotage: all Sharen needed to do was grab Aviel's colored objects and keep them in her house, and she was good to go. But then she remembered. She could only leave each sector holding one object at a time. She would need to get creative to keep Aviel's objects away from him.

When the horn sounded, Sharen burst out of her bedroom into her living room, doing a quick scan for any clues that the sections of the living room would give her. The walls of her living room had been divided into sections; two walls had four sections and two had three. On the wall in each section was that district's number painted on in its district color, and a shelf with a rod of some sort attached to it. Clearly, Violet wasn't using the shelves to give any hints as to what the objects could be.

Sharen took a deep breath and another sip of water, then ran out the door of her house, running through in her mind some ways to creatively sabotage Aviel without using any of the obvious options. She hoped that everyone else was ready to follow through with their part of the plan. There was no other option at this point: their plan had to work.

* * *

 _Ventus Gorva, 18  
District Six Male_

* * *

This plan needed to work. Ventus actually had a lot riding on it.

If Ventus was able to find the proof that Aviel was sabotaging people, it could fix his reputation once and for all. It would show everyone that Ventus wasn't evil, that this sabotage thing wasn't his fault. And more than that, it would show that he was, in fact, a good person, because he was taking a stand against those who were doing the wrong thing. A true Career might do something as Aviel was doing.

Ventus was not a Career.

When the challenge started, Ventus didn't even bother looking at his living room. He just burst into the courtyard, scanning the houses for Aviel. And sure enough, he didn't appear! Every single other competitor came out through the front door. But that genius must have run through the back door.

Excellent.

Without missing a beat, Ventus ran around Aviel's house to right behind it. Instantly, he noticed that most of the trees had been moved from the Arena. (Rochas would not be very happy about that.) This meant that he could clearly see Aviel's figure running away from the house. Channeling everything he had, Ventus chased after Aviel pretty much due west to the District Four sector.

It quickly became apparent to Ventus that the Capitol had effectively created a scale model of Panem in the Arena. The center, the courtyard, was the Capitol, and the rest of the districts surrounded it in exactly the way they did in the real country. That was pretty cool. It also meant that if you had a good sense of the country's map, you would know exactly where each sector was, rather than run around like a maniac trying to find the one sector you were missing.

When the two arrived at the District Four sector, Ventus looked around for his object, all the while keeping an eye on Aviel. The sector, designed like a beach resort, had effectively three types of objects strewn around: fishing rods, spatulas, and nets. But something told Ventus that there was something else for them to find, a more accurate object. Like, say, a fish in the water for them to retrieve. But, Ventus didn't quite have enough time to jump into the water and retrieve the fish; he would just have to wait until he knew what Aviel was doing.

Aviel stopped and thought for a minute, then grabbed a fishing rod and ran back to his house. And it definitely was the right rod, too; there were only two competitors whose colors were grey. While Aviel had been thinking, Ventus studied the grey objects on the beach and registered which were lighter and which were darker. Aviel had, in fact, taken the lighter grey rod. But he didn't use it to try to get a fish. Knowing he had the wrong object, Ventus grabbed his as well, then followed Aviel back to the courtyard. As Aviel dropped his object off in his house, Ventus just dropped it on his doorstep, then returned to keeping an eye on Aviel.

Next, Aviel ran east, ending up in District Thirteen's sector. There were a few objects there: guns, watches, and maps. Well, sort of guns. It was more like three pieces that made up a gun. This was an obvious one; what you needed to do was put the gun together and then take it back to your house. Ventus grabbed his three pieces, then tried to put them together as quickly as he could. But as soon as Aviel was done, Ventus just grabbed his pieces and ran. He could finish putting together the gun later.

Once Aviel had hit five or six districts, Ventus became confident that Aviel wasn't sabotaging anyone. Even when he arrived at the Ten sector, where there were a ton of tiny animal mutts running around, Aviel didn't make the slightest motion towards animals of any other color. And he had even grabbed the right object a few times!

But this was clearly a sabotageable challenge. So if Aviel wasn't sabotaging anyone, someone had to be instead of him. Obviously, Sharen was trying to do so. Ventus had a feeling that there was someone else.

But who?

* * *

 _Crixus Anjou, 18  
District Eleven Male_

* * *

Crixus ran back to his house, freshly picked cherry from the trees in the Eleven sector in hand. Sharen, holding Aviel's cherry, was very close behind him. He stepped to the side, let her pass, then ran to his house and dropped his cherry off on the shelf of the correct section in the living room. It looked like she'd figured out a way to sabotage Aviel after all.

Now, what was left? Crixus scanned the shelves to figure out which sectors he had left. It looked like it was only Eight and Nine. Perfect! They were both pretty close to his house.

First, Crixus ran to the District Eight sector. Strewn around inside the massive factory that constituted the Eight sector were a number of packages in many different sizes riding down the conveyor belt, as well as a number of familiar-looking chairs on which the factory workers would theoretically. What did he remember about District Eight… oh! That was the warehouse challenge! Confidently, he grabbed one of the packages in his color and ran it back to his house, nearly banging into a panicked-looking Silas and a very angry Myranda along the way.

That didn't look good.

Now, to District Nine! And just one more thing to find. But when he reached that sector, he realized his problem. The Nine sector was basically one giant mail room, with hundreds and hundreds of packages and letters. The Nine challenges had nothing to do with letters, so the object had to be a package. But the Capitol wouldn't do packages as the object for two sectors, would they? No, they probably wouldn't.

So where did he go wrong?

Crixus's instinct was that he needed to find a different object for District Nine that was hidden somewhere in the mail room. He searched up and down for a ladder to check the top packages, under the cubbies, everywhere. But he couldn't find anything. It took a moment for him to regroup, but then he realized: most likely, he needed the chairs that were in the factory, not the packages.

Rather than waste time running to the Eight sector and back, and then back to the Nine sector, he decided to figure out which package he needed to take here first. But there were just so many! And he could spot at least three in his color on the outset.

Suddenly, Crixus noticed a mail slot near the front of the warehouse. It seemed to be made to be the perfect size for one package in particular.

Perfect.

Crixus ran and grabbed the first of his packages that he could reach, then ran it back to the mail slot. He tried every side he could, but it didn't fit. He ran to put it back and grabbed the second one, but that one also didn't fit. Finally, on his seventh package, he found the one that was actually his. He grabbed it and ran back to his house to drop it off and grab the package from the Eight sector. On his way back to Eight after triple-checking that he brought the right package, he caught sight of Aviel carrying a grey cherry, dripping wet, entering his house.

So Sharen's sabotage definitely worked. Nice!

When he got to the District Eight section, Crixus found Alder there as well, trying to lift the biggest package in his color. "Alder!" Crixus called. "It's not the package. It's the chairs."

"Oh." Alder quickly pulled his hands out from under the package, then went over to try to pick up his chair. But he couldn't lift that either. "It's too heavy! I'm not strong!"

"Here, let me help you." Crixus grabbed Alder's chair, then stacked it on top of his own chair. With ease, he picked both chairs up and brought them back to the courtyard. "There ya go."

"Wow, Crixus. You're very strong."

"All in a day's work." He helped bring Alder's chair back to his house, then brought his own chair over to his.

As Crixus double-checked the objects he had brought home, he couldn't help but think about Alder. Crixus felt very proud of himself that he'd managed to take that kid under his wing. He wasn't used to allowing people to be so close to him. But something about Alder's wide-eyed expression when he looked at Crixus made the boy from Eleven feel so special inside. Maybe he'd be able to take that new-found passion and turn it into something useful back home.

Confident in his objects, Crixus stood on his plate. And sure enough, it began to lower down! He was done with the Events!

And then he realized that he forgot to say goodbye to Alder.

* * *

 **Well, that happened. This was a pretty action-packed chapter! Did you have a favorite/least favorite/saddest part? Do you think there will be any repercussions from the actions of some of those in this chapter? Is there any plotline you feel like has not been resolved but you want to see how it ends?**

 **This is the FINAL check-in chapter of the story! Check-ins will close for ALL CHAPTERS next week, on October 10. The key word for this check-in is final. And remember, you can submit a check-in if you don't have a competitor in the story; I really encourage you to do so! And then, of course, comes the finale, on Sunday the 14** **th** **! I can't believe this story is almost done!**

 **Thanks for all of your support throughout this process. I can't wait for you to see how this ends!**

 **-goldie031**


	59. Ruby's Office Hours

The morning after the Events finished, Ruby met up with Garnet in the conference room in the Training Center. "Thoughts?" Ruby asked as she organized her desk a bit.

"I think that, apart from Rochas, the Events went very smoothly. There was good drama thanks to Aviel, good healthy competition, all that jazz. And it was a learning curve, so we'll see how to improve things for next year."

"I'd agree. Not perfect, but pretty good."

"But what are we going to do with Aviel?"

"Well, he's coming in today, so I'll probably talk to him then."

"Yeah, what is happening today?"

Ruby pulled out an official-looking notepad. "Well, the competitors have an off day so that we can do the finale tomorrow night because it's a weekend. But, I do have some people that I need to talk to. Liana, Henley, Aviel, Silas, Sharen, and maybe Sage. Maybe not in that order."

"Why are you talking to Liana, mom? I don't want you making things worse."

"I'm going to apologize. I want to make things right with her, and I do think I messed up."

"Yeah, you did," Garnet smirked.

"OK, don't rub it in."

"So am I staying in the room for this? Or am I watching from afar?"

"I think watching on surveillance is safer. Except for when I meet Sage. That we have to cut surveillance for, so you'll come in for that."

"Got it."

Suddenly, the two heard a thud, like someone had run into the door. "What was that?"

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Probably Finn or Gil."

The single biggest change to the statutes system came in the 127th Games, after Finn and Gil Nelson were both Reaped under the same statute, their father's murder charge. This led Ruby to restructure the slips used for the Reaping to display the specific statute under which the child was reaped. But she also wanted to do something to make things right more immediately. As only one tribute, little Tziporah Boronsky, had been removed from the Arena during the 126th Games, Ruby authorized Sami to save the Nelson twins, along with Nuca Daniels from District Five. Nuca turned out to be one of the brightest tributes the Capitol had saved thus far. But the Nelsons had quickly earned the nickname "The Disaster Twins" among those working on rescuing tributes, and for good reason.

Sloppily, the door to the room slammed open, Finn falling over his sibling, sending them to the ground. "Whoops. Sorry, Gilly."

"I hate it when you call me that." The two attempted to stand up; in the process, Gil stepped squarely on Finn's hand.

"Ouch!"

"Whoops."

Ruby took control of the situation. "What's up, boys?"

"Are you ready to begin?"

"Yes. Is the first competitor here?"

"No. We were waiting for you to tell us to get him."

"But…"

Garnet put a hand on his mother's, encouraging her to keep her cool. "Please page Competitor Rune."

"Who?"

"Silas."

"Oh." Finn and Gil successfully managed to trip over each other four more times on their way out.

"How long has it been since they were rescued?"

Ruby exasperatedly put her head on the desk. "Eight years."

"Are you gonna send them into a district?"

"I don't know how to. They are just… the least functional human beings I've ever met in my life."

"At least you've completed their alterations so they can be a little helpful around here. Do you need help dealing with them today?"

"No, I can do it. Thank you, but you should probably head over to the surveillance station."

"Sounds good." Garnet grabbed a notepad and left to go to a separate room.

After a moment, Silas entered the room. "Madam President? One of the individuals who you sent to retrieve me broke a window on the Capitol floor."

Attempting to maintain her cool, Ruby said, "I will have someone notified to take care of it. Please, come sit down." Silas took a seat.

"So, first of all, I want to hear about the training stuff you were talking about with the other former Careers. I was impressed by your interest and passion in this topic. Can you tell me what brought it about?"

Silas appeared caught off-guard by the question. Quickly retaining his composure, he replied, "Well, I felt shafted by a number of the competitions in these Events. While I had trained and came in feeling prepared, I suddenly felt a little bit shafted. Like I hadn't been adequately prepared for things. If the Events are going to become a staple in Panem, we need to work with Career districts (and, by extension, all districts) to create balanced, non-Games focused training."

"Is there a particular reason why you're most interested in training only in the Career districts?"

"I feel like training culture is so strong in the Career districts and really not as strong in the others. Maybe it's a bit better now because of the smaller academies in the outer districts, but I think those outer districts probably provide more well-rounded training. I want to bring the Career districts on to that level. Which is kinda funny, because most people think about it as the opposite, as the Careers being more prepared than the outer districts."

"That is very admirable," nodded Ruby. "But I must ask how you can say that you've done such admirable things when, in fact, you did something not-so-admirable yourself in the Arena."

Silas looked totally taken aback. "What… what do you mean?"

"It wasn't very nice to sabotage Myranda. Taking action against another competitor, while not technically against the rules, is incredibly inappropriate and does not reflect the spirit of the Events at all. I am incredibly disappointed in you."

Silas blubbered in fear in front of the President. "My deepest apologies, Madam. I didn't mean to harm anyone. I just… another competitor told me that someone else sabotaged them and I didn't want to see them wronged. But I guess I didn't think about how I was wronging someone else in return."

"Another competitor told you that someone else sabotaged them?"

"Yeah."

"Which competitor?"

Silas hesitated a moment. But, realizing that their best shot of staying on President Emerald's good side was coming clean, they replied, "Aviel Nitsa."

"Well, what if I told you that Aviel was not, at any point, sabotaged by anybody else?"

"That's not possible. He couldn't have been. He told me he wasn't!"

"Well, people don't always tell the truth, Silas. In fact, the only person other than you to sabotage, so to speak, any other competitor was Aviel Nitsa."

"No. He was sabotaged! He couldn't have sabotaged other people. That wouldn't make sense. He couldn't have told me that someone else sabotaged him not two days ago if he was sabotaging other people. He didn't have any way to get the idea to sabotage anybody. That wasn't even in his head. The only way he could have possibly gotten the idea to sabotage someone would be if he was sabotaged himself."

Ruby nodded. She took out a little remote control from her desk and pointed it at the TV in her office. "Watch this."

Silas watched the footage Ruby had assembled of the numerous times Aviel had sabotaged another competitor: taking Sharen's batteries from her bowl, stealing a number of competitors' cherries, taking Jess's items, even sabotaging Silas themself… the footage seemed to go on and on. "I can't believe this," Silas mused quietly. "He… he fucking used me."

"And what's impressive to me, Silas, is that you seemed to know what was going on." Ruby showed Silas the clip of their conversation with Crixus and Sharen, in which Crixus explained to Silas what Aviel was doing. "Yet you still fell for him!"

"Well, we stopped meeting," Silas explained apologetically. "And he's incredibly alluring. But I just…" Silas snapped back into their anger. "Oh that makes me mad! I can't believe him. I… I…"

"But looking back on it, does what he said about Myranda make sense?"

"I mean, I never really believed that Myranda would sabotage anyone. But Aviel was being so kind to me and really seemed as though he loved me."

Ruby made her tone significantly more gentle. "You followed your heart. Maybe next time, think about it a little bit. I'm not going to penalize you for Aviel's misdeeds. But I needed to know before we started working on this Academy project that you know that what you did was wrong, and that it can be incredibly dangerous to listen to other people."

"Thank you. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you or her…"

"I'll let you know."

Ruby nodded her approval. "Can you please go and get Aviel for me?"

"I don't want to face him. I don't trust myself."

"Fair. Then please go get Sharen, but please don't discuss our conversation with anybody else."

"Of course, Madam President." Silas gave Ruby a little bow, then left.

A moment later, Sharen came in. "Hello, President Emerald."

"Hi, Sharen. Let's talk sabotages for a second."

"Yeah, and how Aviel fucked… sorry, messed everyone up."

"Which is correct. I'm not doubting you. But, have you ever heard the expression two wrongs don't make a right?"

"Yes…"

"Well, you were certainly annoyed by Aviel, which is valid. But by stooping to his level, you've done exactly what he did: something out of the spirit of the Events. And because of that, despite your best intentions, I have no choice but to give you a punishment. Once all the points have been calculated for the Events, you will switch scores with the person immediately below you, thereby knocking you down a place."

The realization hit Sharen. "That means I can't win."

"Correct, you can't. But that's the only way to give you a fair punishment."

"If that's my punishment, what could Aviel's be…" muttered Sharen to herself.

"You'll have to find out. You're dismissed now."

"Thanks, I guess." Deep in thought, Sharen left the room.

Rather than risking the Disaster Twins breaking another window, Ruby sent a quick message to Violet, asking her to send Aviel to her office. As she waited for him to arrive, she set her face in a stern expression, preparing for the conversation ahead.

After a moment, the door opened, and Aviel smugly walked into her room. His smug demeaner faded, however, as he took in the stern expression on Ruby's face. "Sit down," she commanded. Aviel quickly obliged.

"Mr. Nitsa. I am incredibly disappointed in you. I would like you to please explain to me what you thought you were doing by sabotaging the other competitors. And do not lie to me."

"Well. I… I thought that, if I could mess other people up, it would improve my standing in the Events and maybe make it more likely that I could win."

"I cannot comprehend how you thought that would work. Yes, you hurt their status. But you also didn't always help yourself with these placements. In fact, in a number of those scenarios, you probably would have done better had you not sabotaged anybody. You infringed on the potential for a number of competitors to win. And, no matter how popular your sabotages were (hence why I didn't stop you), you certainly did not stay within the sprits of the Events. This offense is one that I could give you a statute for; however, I do not believe that that is the best punishment for this particular offense. I'll be doing something a little different instead.

"First, I have instructed the Gamemakers to, no matter how you actually placed, place you last in every single challenge, thereby assuring that you will place last in the Events. Once the Events end, however, you will remain in the Capitol. We actually believe that you would make a wonderful addition to the Events Gamemaking team, because you are so good at identifying the loopholes of the challenges. And our current District Nine Gamemaker will likely need to be… reassigned. For reasons. Aviel, you will take on that role. You will not return to District Nine, nor will you be allowed to see your parents again for the foreseeable future. You may not have any form of a significant other until further notice. And you have lost the monthly stipend that you were going to earn for being a part of the Events. This punishment is non-negotiable, though good behavior in the next few years may lead to the loosening of these punishments.

"You may return to your floor now. Please send Liana to this office. And, of course, nothing that we spoke about may leave this room. Thank you, Aviel," Ruby concluded curtly.

Shell-shocked, Aviel left the room, not fully comprehending everything that Ruby had said. This was one of the harshest decisions Ruby had to make over her time as president, but she was confident that she had made the right call.

After a time, Liana entered her great-aunt's office; she closed the door behind her and stood directly next to it. "Hello, ma'am."

Ruby took on the gentlest tone she would be taking on all day. "Hi, Liana. Please come take a seat."

"I don't trust you."

"And you have every right not to. But I just called you in here because I wanted to apologize."

Liana was caught a bit off guard by what Ruby said. "Really."

"Yes. I was wrong to restrict your relationship with Myranda; the odds of it being a problem are so slim, and if I can't explain why to you, I shouldn't restrict you. It was out of my domain as president, and I'm sorry."

"I accept your apology. I don't know if I can fully trust you, but I appreciate it."

"I want you to know, if I haven't told you this before, that you should feel free to call me Ruby. And if you want to continue with this relationship, you have my full blessing."

"Thank you." The two women shook hands.

"Can you do me a favor and get Henley before you go back to your floor? And please be careful around Aviel. He might be a little angry."

Liana raised her eyebrows, nodded carefully, and returned to her floor.

A bit later, Henley sheepishly entered the room. "Hi, President Emerald."

"Hello, Henley."

"I… I messed up."

"I know."

"I should have paid more attention to what was actually going on, as opposed to what I thought was going on."

"I know."

"And then maybe I could have done something about Aviel rather than focusing on Ventus."

"Yes."

"So I guess… I'm sorry."

Ruby nodded kindly. "Henley, part of being young and still being in training is learning from your mistakes. This mistake was a bit of a big one, but the stakes are much lower than if you were in the Games. Which is good. But it does teach you a very important lesson, which is to be very aware of your surroundings. Sometimes you'll be on a mission, but something else important will happen that's totally unrelated. If you pay enough attention to what's going on around you, you'll be able to help out. I'm not punishing you for this; what Aviel did is not your fault. But I do want you to take this as a learning experience. My guess is that the next time you go on a mission, you'll be a lot more perceptive, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Now, in terms of where we go from here. Somehow it got out that you're in SpOps, so if you go on any other mission you'll probably end up being recognized. Either way, I'd like you to go through some more training. But we may take the step of alterations if we need to."

"But many SpOps agents go through alterations, right?"

"Yes."

"So that's fine. It's to be expected."

"And this is something we can discuss when we get closer. Now, all things considered, how do you think the Events went?"

"Apart from Aviel? Pretty well. I'm curious what the audience thought about it, though."

"Do you think it could stand to have a slightly more competitive aspect?"

"I mean, competition is always fun. And I think what Aviel did certainly made things more exciting."

Ruby took down some notes. "That checks out. All right, thank you, Henley. Please go get Sage on your way back to your floor."

"On it!"

After Henley left, Ruby turned and addressed the camera. "Garnet, go find Finn and Gil and bring them in too. I don't want them spreading rumors."

A moment later, Garnet came in. "Mom, are you sure this is a good idea? They might spread around that Sage is actually a rescued tribute," he whispered.

"We keep them so well hidden from everyone else, who are they gonna tell?"

"They're the Disaster Twins. I wouldn't be surprised if they leak it to the Tattler or Arax Asks or something somehow. They did just break a supposedly unbreakable window."

"Fair point."

Ruby and Garnet waited until Sage came in. After he sat down, Ruby pressed a button, sending titanium sheets slamming down around every wall. "Now nobody can overhear us, Mint."

"Oh, it feels so weird to hear my birth name again."

"Yes, a lot of people say that. How are you feeling?"

"Good. I think Liana or Myranda might be weirded out by me or suspicious of me, but I don't think anyone figured me out."

"Which is fantastic. People like Kylis and Ferrari who stay in the districts don't have to worry about being recognized, but you were in an incredibly risky position."

"Did my family figure me out?"

"Not from what I hear from Ilan, who is stationed there." Ruby watched an ambivalent expression cross Mint's face; he didn't want them to find out for sake of their safety, but he also… kind of wanted them to know that he was still alive. The three sat in silence for a moment.

"So what happens now?"

"Well, you definitely need to go back to Eight for at least another year. We will likely need you to mentor for the Events next year, because Serenity. And then we'll see how it goes. Plus, it would look weird if you randomly disappeared."

"Right."

"I know that you didn't exactly want to be in this situation, but you did a very good job, Mint. And I'm very proud of you."

"Thank you."

Ruby pressed the button, lifting the titanium and allowing Sage to leave. She breathed a sight of relief as soon as the door closed. "I'm glad those all went well. Or as well as can be expected."

"Now all we have to do is crown a Victor."

* * *

 **Well, we have hit it! The last chapter before the finale! Do you think Ruby's decisions were appropriate? Were any of them too harsh or not harsh enough?**

 **With the posting of this chapter, the participation forms are formally CLOSED. I'm incredibly excited for you guys to see what I've concocted for the finale Sunday; it'll be an epic finale you'll never forget. I haven't decided yet when to post, so make sure you have story alerts on all day!**

 **This story has been quite the journey; I'm excited for it to come to something resembling a conclusion!**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**


	60. 28 27

_28_ _th_ _Place: Aviel Nitsa, District Nine Male_

* * *

Aviel had never been this shocked for this long. He'd never felt anything for this long. But here he was, being fitted in a grey tux with a baby blue bow tie and cummerbund, unable to say anything to process what had happened the day before.

Not that he could share what happened with anyone. Ruby had explicitly told him not to. And at this point, he couldn't risk anything worse happening to his family. He'd already managed to totally wreck their future: lost them their stipend, lost them the honor that would come with him placing not last, lost them their son.

So much for giving his family a better life. Now he knew how the kids who were put on statutes because of their parents felt – almost.

"Is everything OK, Aviel? You seem oddly subdued," Urie, Aviel's stylist asked.

"Yeah. Just… thinking."

"There's a lot at stake tonight. Some of you district folk might actually have a chance of getting out of poverty! Wouldn't that be nice?"

"Real nice."

Urie continued to blabber on about the socioeconomic politics of Panem. Aviel swiftly tuned him out. He couldn't bear to hear someone talk about the competitors' – the _other_ competitors' – chance of getting out of poverty when that was exactly what he'd failed to do.

He'd failed.

But then his mind started working. The mind that had found a loophole in nearly half of the challenges during the Events. The mind that, when put to use for the better, could be a force of tremendous good in Panem.

Ruby hadn't said anything about sending money back home.

If Aviel worked well enough, and if he proved himself to Ruby, he could still help his family succeed. He could help get them out of the mess that he'd put them in in the first place.

So he would take his last-place finish proudly tonight. He would stand tall as he was announced as the first loser of the Events, ever. He would accept his fate without complaint. And then he would be the best damn Gamemaker that Ruby Emerald had ever seen.

* * *

 _27_ _th_ _Place: Liana Klepper, District Nine_

* * *

As Liana left the stage after finding out her placement, her mind was racing. Obviously she had no way to actually tell, but it felt so likely that her placement had been preselected. How else could she have placed 27th? And it was even more obvious because there was no way Ruby would place her last; that would show interference way too obviously.

There was one really easy way to get to the bottom of this. Liana, after all, had access to the President's box, being the President's great-niece. She confidently weaved her way around the studio towards the audience, finally arriving at Ruby's box. As she knocked on the door to come in, the door swung open revealing Ruby, on her way to find Liana. "Oh, hello, dear."

"Don't 'dear' me. You rigged the Events so I'd place low so I couldn't win so it wouldn't look like you rigged the Events!"

"I had a feeling you might think that." Ruby closed the door to the box and pulled out a large purple envelope. She peeked into it, flipped through the pages, and then pulled one out. "This is your Events record. I had Marcella run a list of everyone's placement in every competition and the number of participation points they got in thousands. Here's your list."

Liana scanned the paper that Ruby handed her. Her scores seemed pretty all over the place, and they were hard to comprehend; her brain naturally thought that 20 was a good score, but it wasn't such a great score for the afternoon challenges. And she wasn't quite sure how to read her participation number either, as she had no concept of how well the other competitors had done in that regard.

"So your final score was decided by taking your challenge and multiplying it by 0.7, then taking your participation score and multiplying it by 0.3. If you want to do it on your own, here's a calculator." Liana did not particularly want to do the math. "And in the event that you don't want to actually do the math, this is a list of every competitor's score. Obviously without who got which, though that information will be made public at the end of the ceremony. But I can't have you spoiling that information, now can I?"

Liana looked at the list of scores. And sure enough, everything added up; she had the second-lowest score of all of the competitors.

Damn it. Ruby was right.


	61. 26

_26_ _th_ _Place: Ramona Wayland, District Ten Female_

* * *

There was something kind of cool about being the most popular kid in school. No tribute had come back from the Capitol since Michelle Caballo twenty-five Games ago, and nobody as young as Ramona had ever come back. So, needless to say, she was the cream of the middle school crop.

"Was the food good?" asked Serena as she and fifty of her and Ramona's closest friends walked home.

"Yes! You could get whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. How incredible is that?"

"Even during the Events?"

"Even during the Events. We were in those little house things and we could just request meals or snacks! There was always an entrée of the day, and I do think there were fewer options during the Events than during the pre-Events. But that was still cool."

"That's awesome."

"Were the competitions hard?" asked Penny, another friend.

"Some of them. I think they were really nice because they played to different peoples' strengths at different times. Some of them were more about physical strength, some were more about mental strength, some were about luck. I liked that there was a balance of things I could do well in and which ones I would have a harder time at. It was very well organized all in all."

The problem with being popular was that everyone wanted to talk to Ramona. And all she wanted was a book. Luckily, they arrived at her house at that moment, giving Ramona the ability to politely recuse herself from the crowd of people surrounding her, dash inside, and lock the door.

"How was school?" asked her mother, locking the door and placing a sofa against it.

"Popularity is exhausting."

"I can understand that. Is it fun?"

"A little." Ramona began to unpack her backpack, looking for a book inside it.

"I got a letter for you today, Ramona."

"Let me see." Ramona took the envelope and read the writing on it. Then, confidently, she threw it in the trash.

She didn't need those memories anymore.


	62. 25

_25_ _th_ _Place: Sharen Cantiano, District Twelve Female_

* * *

The time had come to learn the results of the Events. Sharen wasn't particularly nervous for herself. She had no idea how she'd placed, but she really didn't care; after all, Ruby had already all but told her that she couldn't win. What she was nervous about was Aviel's placement. All she wanted was for him to not win. He'd messed everyone up! Anyone who didn't win could probably chock it up to Aviel's actions. And if Ruby had given her a penalty for sabotaging him once for a moral reason, she must have done something to him as well. But she would be pissed if he placed higher than she did.

The competitors were led onto the stage by Portia, the stage manager, and placed in the same circle that their houses were in; Sharen was very used to her place between Crixus and Adler. The competitors were quickly briefed on the plan for the evening, which, in a departure from the tradition of the Games, would begin with a video recap of the Events. Then, one by one, Harleigh and Dorian would announce the placement of a competitor. That competitor would walk to the center of the circle and be lifted up onto the stage, where they would have a 2-minute interview. Then, both of the final two would be interviewed together, after which the Victor would be announced. Then, the competitors would be whisked away to the Victory Ball, which would be followed by a massive street party, the first time since the beginning of the Events that the competitors would be allowed out of their assigned colors.

Sharen was certainly excited to get out of green.

Once everyone was clear about what was going on, Portia disappeared to call cues and get things going. This left the competitors in the dark, both figuratively and almost literally. All they could do was listen to the recap of the Events, which Sharen mostly tuned out; she'd heard it all before, after all. Finally, once it was done, Sharen tuned back in.

"It is now time to begin revealing the places of the competitors! We'll begin, as you might expect, with our last-place competitor. Please give a round of applause to… Aviel Nitsa!"

A huge grin spread across Sharen's face. She'd done it! Somehow, she'd kept Aviel to last place! She watched gloatingly as Aviel made his way to the podium in the middle.

Now it didn't matter how she placed. Aviel had placed lower than she did.


	63. 24 23

_24_ _rd_ _Place: Lyric Cloud, Capitol Female_

* * *

Lyric was anxious. Really anxious. As soon as she stepped onto the streets for the block party, she was open to the scrutiny of every single one of the people with whom she went to school. The people with whom she had only been trying to fit in for years. The people whom she wanted to see her for who she was, though, she couldn't bring herself to show her true self to them.

Not only would she be sought after by her classmates, but everyone in the school could easily be there to see her. Lyric would be the most public figure in the Capitol. Well, except for the Emerald descendants. And the other Victors. And the celebrities. And Silas. But still. She wouldn't be afforded the luxury of being a follower, of fading into the background; her given circumstances meant that she would be in the spotlight for the rest of her high school experience.

And that was certainly not preferable.

Dressed as simply as possible, thanks to her stylist, in a black long sleeve shirt, scarf, jeans, and black converse, Lyric carefully traversed the streets of the Capitol, hoping to avoid other kids her age. While the other competitors were having fun getting food, playing, dancing, and just generally partying, Lyric stayed by the stage, watching the performances from artists sponsored by the Department of Culture, just kind of letting the night pass her by.

Until Jess, holding a glass of soda and more boisterous, happy, and altogether crazy than Lyric had ever seen her be before, ran up to her and practically dragged her to the stage. "Play guitar!"

"What?"

"They have guitars! Play!" Jess grabbed one of the electric guitars that were on stage and pretended to strum it, making some sort of cacophonous sound. "Play guitar!"

"N… I don't… I don't want to be the center of…"

"PLAY GUITAR!"

"Fine." Lyric had never played an electric guitar before, but she had a feeling that, in this state, Jess didn't know the difference between an electric guitar and acoustic. Luckily, she knew that they worked the same way. As she put the guitar around her neck, she began to strum it carefully. But as she realized the power of the instrument she held, she began to let go a little bit, unleashing an inner rock star that she never knew was inside her. And for the first time, she kind of enjoyed being in the spotlight.

Maybe fitting in was underrated.

* * *

 _23_ _rd_ _Place: Amazon Brown, District Four_

* * *

As soon as the Victory Ball ended, Amazon was whisked to a small pop up dressing room, in which she finally changed out of her evening dress. Then, she put on a skin-colored body suit that was effectively like a pair of footie pajamas. "It's so you don't get frostbite," explained Patricia, before handing Amazon a frilly red dress with white polka dots, bright red heels, and a matching headband. "Ruby insisted on it."

"This is so my style!" smiled Amazon. "I don't even mind the bodysuit!"

"I'm glad you like it," Patricia smiled. "Now, let's go. You have a party to go to!"

"Whoop de doo."

As Amazon arrived at the block party, she was stunned by the sheer magnitude of it. Streets were closed off, filled up with Capitol citizens of all ages. The buildings were lit in dozens of neon lights, making the Capitol as bright as daytime. There were rides and games and food and everything! It was incredibly overwhelming. But it was truly incredible.

As Amazon wandered the streets of the party, she was pulled aside by Desi Heartwood, Panem's press secretary. "Amazon! Come with me."

"Where?"

"You'll see. We have a surprise for you."

"O… OK," Amazon said, a bit confused. Obediently, she followed Desi, who was collecting all of the eighteen-year-old competitors. As they walked towards some stage, Amazon instinctively fell in line with Sawyer. "Where do you think we're going?" Amazon asked.

"I heard a rumor we're going to take our Shot."

"Really? The Capitol would publicize that?"

"We're eighteen, we're now ineligible for the Reaping because we competed in the Events, and of course the Capitol has vodka."

"But it's showing off alcohol to the districts."

"It's something that every teenager looks forward to for after their last Reaping. You just got to age out early."

"Why do you say you?"

"Because I already took my Shot. I aged out of the Reaping this past summer."

"So are you gonna take it again?"

Sawyer furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't know. I'm not the biggest fan of vodka. But if there's nobody else who aged out early, I might as well take it too." Amazon sighed. "You don't seem so excited."

"I just… don't see the allure of alcohol."

"Wait until you try red wine."


	64. 22

_22_ _nd_ _Place: Sawyer Burns, District Seven Female_

* * *

Sawyer waited anxiously outside the doors to the hall. This was a day that she'd waited for for what seemed like forever, and she was excited and anxious and everything in between to get it over with, to finally settle down into a routine with her fiancé.

Her husband.

"How are you feeling?" asked her mother, standing at her side, more or less ready to walk her daughter down the aisle.

"A bit nervous. It's a big change."

"That it is."

"But a good change."

"A very good change for all of us."

Upon her return home, Sawyer had made a conscious effort to improve her relationship with and perception of her mother. But it had proven more difficult than she thought. Even with Sawyer's monthly stipend, it wasn't quite enough to both make ends meet and provide for Sawyer's brother's needs; Sara still needed to work incredibly long hours for that to happen. So while before the Events, Sawyer didn't want to have a close relationship with her mother, after them, Sara didn't have the time to do so. This meant that the two still had more awkward conversation than would be expected between a mother and a daughter. But it was, slowly, but surely, getting better.

Right on schedule, the organ began to play, and the doors opened. Sawyer watched as those in the procession ahead of her began to walk down the aisle: her bridesmaids, including much of her friend group from the Events, Michael's groomsmen, and then the adorable combination of Maxwell as ring bearer and baby Lucy toddling along next to him as the flower girl, Amazon right next to the baby helping her walk.

Until Lucy decided she didn't want to walk anymore and just sat right down in the middle of the aisle. After some careful coaxing, Amazon just picked Lucy up and kept walking, spreading the flowers herself.

Finally, it was Sawyer's turn to walk down.

"Are you ready?"

"I think so."

Confidently, Sawyer took her first steps down the aisle towards her fiancé, towards her and her family's future.


	65. 21

_21_ _st_ _Place: Sinsya Powers, District Three Female_

* * *

It was a few months after the Reaping for the 135th Games that Sinsya was called into the principal's office. She'd never been called to the principal's office before. Walking down the hallway towards that dreaded door was akin to walking towards one's execution. Sinsya was absolutely dead.

When she reached the end of the hallway, Sinsya found that the door was already open. "May I come in?" she asked nervously.

"Yes, dear," replied Principal Martell calmly and kindly. Nervously, Sinsya entered. "Welcome, Sinsya. How are you?"

"O-o-o-o-ok."

"Don't worry. You're not in trouble. We just need your opinion."

"We?"

"Me and Ms. Mastersen, and Principal Powers and Ms. Driver from District Six."

"Oh. We."

"Yes. This matter concerns one Morrel Elmwyner, who has applied for entry to both the District Three and District Six programs. Morrel has applied to us a number of times now, and his grades and test scores have steadily improved. However, we're a little bit worried."

"I can say that if you're concerned about Morrel's academic ability, he's one of the hardest working people I've ever met."

"That's not the issue," interjected the much deeper voiced Principal Powers. "We're concerned about our image in either case."

"If we accept Morrel," explained Ms. Mastersen, "it makes it look like we're only accepting him because he was a competitor in the Events, and then we're taking someone who doesn't deserve it, which he really does. If we reject him on that basis, it probably looks bad from Ruby's POV, not to mention that, again, he really deserves this."

"This kind of puts both schools in a bind," concluded Ms. Driver. "We were wondering if you have any ideas for how to solve this problem."

Sinsya nodded and thought for a moment. "So, first I'll say that I think District Six is the best fit for Morrel; he's way more of a liberal arts person than a tech person. I do have an idea for how to accept him effectively," she smiled, "but it'll be a little bit unconventional."

"We can work with unconventional."


	66. 20

_20_ _th_ _Place: Serenity Capiere, District Eight Female_

* * *

Serenity and her daughter all sat down at the kitchen table. Little Azure had just turned five, and it was time to teach her a lesson that Serenity should have learned when she was Azure's age.

"Azzy, I want to show you something," said Serenity kindly. She placed a large, pretty poster on the table and spread it out. "This is your chore chart."

"What's a chore?" Azzy asked.

"A chore is something that we do to help make sure the house is clean and that everything you need to do gets done. So it's little things like making your bed, helping put dishes away or set the table, et cetera. When you do a chore, you'll get to put a little sticker on this chart. As you get older, you'll be able to do more chores, so you can put more stickers on the chart."

"Why?"

"Well, each of these stars represents one coin. When you want to buy something, like candy or a toy, we'll check your chart and see how many coins you have to spend. And you can spend them, or you can save them."

"So you won't buy me stuff anymore?"

"Well, we'll still buy you stuff for your birthday, and buy you food to eat and clothes you need. But if you want a toy just to have another toy, or a special piece of candy after school from the sweetshop, that you'll have to buy yourself."

"No more treats from you?"

Serenity took a deep breath. Everything in her wanted to say, "No, we'll give you treats sometimes." To show her daughter that she loved her. But if she spoiled Azzy, the girl would never learn to work for things she wanted. It was tough love, but if that's what it took to be a better parent than her parents were, that was what she had to do.

And besides, she'd still buy Azzy a treat every now and then.

"Correct. No more treats from me."

"Will Uncle Damien still give me treats?"

"Well… maybe," Serenity winked.


	67. 19

_19_ _th_ _Place: Morrel Elmwyner, District Seven Male_

* * *

As soon as Morrel returned home from the Events, he went back to his books. The distraction of the Events was fun, and fun was good, but it was way more important to get into school. Education, after all, was the key to Morrel's future. He threw himself back into school and studying, working harder and harder to get into the schools that he wished to attend. The last thing Morrel wanted was a pity admittance because he'd competed in the Events. He wanted to earn his place in school of his own merit.

After the Reaping for the Games, Morrel filled out his application for both the D3 and D6 programs. Then, he again waited for November to come around so that he could… probably get the same rejection letter. For three months or so, Morrel would come home from school every day and just pace back and forth, anxious about the news coming from so far away.

Until one day, when his mother presented him with a letter. "Are you ready to read it?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Bracing himself for rejection, Morrel opened the envelope and unfolded the letter inside.

 _Dear Mr. Elmwyner,_

 _Congratulations! We at the Early University program in District Six are excited to welcome you to join our student body as a visiting scholar._

Morrel looked up at his mother. "They want me as a visiting scholar. What does that mean?"

"I don't know. Why don't you read on?"

 _As a visiting scholar, you will be treated like a regular member of the student body, eligible for the same degrees as the rest of our students, and able to take part in the same classes; in short, you will be just like any other member of the student body, just with the special title of visiting scholar._

"It says that I'm gonna basically be like everyone else. Why did they give me a special title then?"

"I'm not sure, honey. But the important thing is, you got in! You're going to District Six!"

"Yeah. Yeah, I am."


	68. 18

_18_ _th_ _Place: Alder Howe, District Twelve_

* * *

"You're it!" exclaimed Polly.

"Two-person tag is no fun!" complained Alder. The two ran through a pile of snow, spreading it all over the yards of the surrounding houses.

"That's just cause you always lose!"

"Hey, kids, watch it! You almost knocked over my cart!" screamed the crazy hot chocolate seller. But Polly and Alder just kept running through the streets, unafraid of anything that could possibly get in their way.

Suddenly, Alder stopped, causing Polly to slam into him. "Sorry, Polly, I gotta go."

"But Alder! I wanna play more!"

"Polly, today's Wednesday. I have to be home in time!"

"Fiiiiiine. See you later."

"Bye!"

Alder quickly ran home to get a peek at the garbage truck, as he did every Wednesday. It still amazed him how precisely the truck was able to pick up the trash cans and dump them into the truck. And just like every week, except for the few that he was in the Capitol, he stayed by the window to watch the truck until it had passed.

He had to tell Crixus.

"Still watching the garbage truck, honey?" his mother asked.

"Yeah, but now I have a friend to tell about it."

Alder was not the best writer, nor did he have particularly good handwriting, but that didn't stop him from pulling out a piece of paper and writing to his friend from far away. He hoped Crixus didn't mind getting a letter from him every week. Even if they were very similar.


	69. 17

_17_ _th_ _Place: Jessamine Rogers, District One Female_

* * *

There was something about being home and truly feeling protected that was really, really nice. Once she and her family had gotten home from the train station, they'd just sat, on the couch, as a family of eight (Jess, her parents, her three brothers, her sister-in-law, and her niece) all together. The youngest, Jess was used to being watched over by her brothers. And while she enjoyed the freedom that the Events provided, it was still really nice to know for sure that all three of her big brothers would stand up for her and unconditionally protect her. It was easier to be protected than to protect, especially than to protect a small child like Wins.

Not that she didn't like Wins. But big brothers were really really nice to have.

"Do you want to do anything, Jess?" asked her mother, carefully stroking her hair.

"I kind of want to design a little bit," Jess smiled. "Just sitting, on the couch, with you guys. I missed you."

"We missed you too," her father said. "And think, how lucky we are for you to go to the Capitol and to come back."

Jess smiled. "We are pretty lucky."

Slightly reluctant to stand up, Jess went into her room to go look for the suitcase she brought home from the Capitol. As she rummaged through it, however, she became more and more alarmed. "Mom? Have you seen my notebook of designs?"

"No, not since you came home," Zaidee replied. "I know you brought it to the Capitol."

"Yeah, me too. But I can't seem to find it in my room."

"Do you think you left it there?"

"I don't think so. I thought I'd been careful that morning…"

At that moment, Jess realized why packing hungover was a bad idea.

"Well, we can always get you a new notebook, but I have no clue how we'll get this one back. Do you remember anything that was in that notebook?"

"I can't," Jess groaned. "I can't visualize any of my old designs! I think they're lost forever."


	70. 16

_16_ _th_ _Place: Mint Johnson, current alias Sage Davidson, District Eight Male_

* * *

The morning before the competitors left, Sage was filled with excitement. He was about to do something he'd certainly dreamed of doing for a while: leaving the Training Center alive. But before he could do that, he heard a very loud knock on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's Neelee," replied his mentor. "Garnet wants to talk to you."

Alarmed, Sage bolted up, quickly got dressed, and ran outside to meet the President's son. "Where are we going, Garnet?"

"Trust me, you'll be done before your train leaves," Garnet said as she led Sage up to the conference room again. "We wouldn't do that to you."

"I just don't want to seem suspicious."

"I doubt you will. Serenity is too wrapped up in herself to suspect you. And your mentors know better than to question me."

"Fair enough."

When they arrived, Garnet led Sage into the room and shut the door securely. A few seconds later, the titanium walls came down. "So, as you know, we like to let you guys know when people are sent out on missions or their missions switch. And as you may expect, two tributes are heading out into the districts today!"

"Yeah, that makes sense because of the trains."

"Especially because they're assigned to specific competitors. So, the first is Amery Devlin, 128-7M, new alias Amos Nardelli. Amos is going to be staying here in the Capitol with Silas, so I guess he's not really going by train. And he'll be working in the Gamemaker Center, so he'll be staying… pretty much right here. Amos's primary job will be helping out with Silas's Career work, so he'll probably be back here and in other government buildings a while bunch."

"Did he pick his name?"

"Yeah. It's the acronym of his siblings' names."

"That's so cute."

"The other is Cinder Hastings, 129-12F, new alias Hestia Hazel Sandrin. She's going to Two to be Chloe's guardian."

"Why does Chloe need a guardian?"

"We're just… nervous about how she will be received in the district."

Sage nodded. "That's fair."

"So yeah! They're headed out to the districts. This info was sent out via bulletin to everyone else today, but now you know it too."

"Excellent." Sage liked to be informed. "Thanks, Garnet."

"No problem. I'm sure I'll see you soon."


	71. Hello Again

Sitting down in a room with Cerise was incredibly infuriating. Pacifica still couldn't stand that woman. She thought she could just waltz in as the President's daughter and take Pacifica's place as Alexios's right-hand woman. And she was the one with the brilliant idea to plant a Gamemaker. Look at how well that went.

"Well, that plan failed," snapped Pacifica.

"Hey, planting a Gamemaker was a decent idea," Alexios defended Cerise. "And it could have worked."

"Yes, if we had picked any name OTHER than Barley Wheatstalk. We were setting ourselves up to fail."

"Well, I wanted to make it believable that he was from a district," Cerise explained, "and definitely not a rebel district. No Capitolite would call themselves Barley Wheatstalk, and it's a good Old Nine name – even nobody from Eleven would go with that now."

"Point of the matter is," Alexios returned the focus of his two assistants, "we need a backup plan. Some way to maintain control in government. Barley was great because we could control him, we had him completely under our thumb."

"I mean, you have me. I have government influence."

"But you currently don't hold a position."

"Yeah, no position," Pacifica repeated smugly.

"Oh, shut up."

"All right. If you two can't put aside your differences and get along we're not going to get anywhere. I almost wonder if our best bet is to hold off for a few weeks and wait patiently for something to happen in Panem that helps our cause. That will allow us to think carefully about what we're doing."

"But!" exclaimed both women impatiently.

"That's my decision, as the leader of this group, and that's final."

"Fine." Pacifica stormed off.

Sitting in a room with Pacifica was incredibly infuriating. Cerise couldn't understand how someone could have so short of a temper, could be so easily agitatable. It was incredibly challenging to work with Pacifica. She thought that just because she had already been working with Alexios, she had a bigger say in what was going on? That certainly wasn't the case. Sometimes some new blood and a new perspective made things go a lot better, and Alexios certainly seemed to agree.

It was all a part of the plan.


	72. 15

_15_ _th_ _Place: Mallory Farro, District Eleven Female_

 _Trigger Warning: Mentions of Abuse_

* * *

Mallory woke up, a bit disoriented, on a moving train. Things had just moved so quickly after the Victory ball that she could barely remember where she was or where she was going. Until suddenly, it hit her.

She was going back to Eleven. Back home.

It didn't really feel like home. Home wasn't supposed to be a place of pain, where your parents didn't love you. Home wasn't supposed to be a place where you felt nervous every time you walked in the door, where the fields of grain and the orchards were equally a refuge and a hiding place for what your parents could do. It had been so nice to not be nervous about her every move, about how quietly she could move through the house so that her mother wouldn't catch on to where she was, or the fear that her father would consume yet more alcohol and be unable to control his actions.

How had she never realized before that Eleven wasn't really home? The Capitol, a place in which she had spent three weeks of her life, was more of her home than the Capitol was.

But she was still nervous to tell anyone. What would her parents do if they found out?

As confidently as she could, Mallory went out into the common area for breakfast. But she couldn't stop her eyes from racing back and forth, her leg from shaking, her mouth from anxiously biting her nails. She hadn't been this nervous in a long time.

And her mentor noticed.

After breakfast, Ivie dragged Mallory into Mal's bedroom. "You're not yourself," she asserted.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're anxious. You're nervous. Something is very wrong. And I'm waiting until you tell me what happened to let you out."

"You can't be serious."

"Watch me."

The two waited in that room for what could have easily been hours but what was more likely closer to a few moments before Mallory broke. Sobbing, she told her mentor everything: how she knew that her parents never wanted her, how she'd never had any friends because she wasn't allowed to, how her thirteenth birthday present was a whip that they then used on her. By the time she was finished, she was visibly shaking. "I got a taste of freedom," Mallory lamented. "I can't go back there."

Ivie was stunned. She looked at the girl, the child in front of her, and vowed at that moment to do everything she could to protect her.


	73. 14

_14_ _th_ _Place: Ventus Gorva, District Six Male_

* * *

As soon as the Victor was announced, and the interviews completed, the competitors were whisked away to the President's Mansion, where the Victory Ball would take place. Then, the competitors were quickly divided by gender to change into formal wear for the ball; Winslet, identifying as a girl that day, and Chloe were included with the ladies. The boys were excited to learn that they would no longer be wearing their assigned colors. Instead, they were to wear identical tuxedos, with white shirts and a bowtie and cummerbund in their district color. Unsurprisingly, it took the men much less time to get ready than the ladies, as the women needed their hair and makeup redone, leaving them with a decent amount of down time before the ball was to start.

Ventus sat by himself, waiting, watching some of the other guys chatting amongst themselves. Even after joining in with Sharen's team, he still hadn't quite… fit in with the other competitors. It was just as ostracizing as being back home in Six: the district's pariah, the person on whom everything could be blamed, even if it wasn't his fault. And while he was sure that the other competitors here didn't mean to leave him out, it was… still upsetting to feel left out. A simple, "Hello! How's it going?" could go a long way.

"Hello, Ventus. How's it going?"

"It's going well. How are you?" Ventus replied, surprised to see, of all people, Aelyx next to him; from all that he could tell, Aelyx had been nothing but hostile to him for the duration of the Events.

"I'm doing well. I just wanted to chat a little bit before we go our separate ways."

"With me? Why with me of all people?"

"Because I was wrong to be mean to you. And I think we could really be good friends."

Ventus was stunned. Nobody had really ever asked him to be his friend before.

"Yeah. I… I would like that."


	74. 13

_13_ _th_ _Place: Silas Rune, Capitol "Male"_

* * *

It made a lot of sense that Silas and Lyric would be the last two to leave. After all, they did live the closest to the Arena out of any of the competitors. They would also be the only two to travel home separately; in a few moments, they would be getting into cars and heading back to their houses. More likely than not, they'd see each other again eventually around the district before meeting up for any future Events stuff they would inevitably be roped in to.

Not that they'd been told of anything in particular that would happen. But with all the work Silas was already planning on doing with the Academies across the districts, and as they and Lyric lived closest of any competitor to Ruby, the two were undoubtedly going to play a heavy role in Events publicity for the next twelve months.

After doing one final sweep of his quarters, Silas made their way down to the entrance of the training center, where the car would come to pick them up. They were surprised to find Ruby waiting for them, along with another guy. A… a very good-looking guy.

"Silas, I want you to meet Amos. He's very familiar with the Games, and so will be working with you on your Academy project."

"Nice to meet you, Amos. I'm Silas."

"Good to meet you as well." Silas felt a familiar flutter in their heart.

"We'll probably meet either after school or on a weekend here at the Training Center to start talking about some basic ideas. I also might assign Elizah to this project, or one or two of the Victors; still trying to think it through more carefully."

"That sounds good to me," Silas smiled. "I'm just excited to begin working on this!"

"Me too. We'll be in touch, Silas. Have a nice time at home. If you need any excused absences from school, refer your teachers to me."

"Absolutely."

As Silas watched Ruby and Amos walk away, they shook their head sadly. It would be foolish to trust someone they'd just met with their heart. That would cause nothing but trouble.

And Silas would know.


	75. 12

_12_ _th_ _Place: Winslet Vwystrom, District One "Male"_

* * *

Waking up in the morning after the party was like being a deflated balloon. The ball was just gorgeous, and the party was one of the most incredible experiences of her life. But that meant that Wins had gone to bed way past her bed time, so now she was very very tired.

Wins was startled by a knock on the door. "Come in!" groaned the young kid.

"Good morning, Wins," said her mentor, Steven, kindly. "It's time to go home."

"Home," smiled Winsley. "I missed home."

"Are you ready to go back?"

"I'm very tired."

"Well, let's get ready for the day. Are you feeling masculine or feminine today?"

"Is it Sunday?"

"Yes."

"Feminine."

Steven kindly helped his competitor pick out an outfit, only to walk outside and have Jasmine march Winslet back into the room because "nothing matched" and "you can't wear socks with sandals." Finally, after breakfast, it was time to go back home. Jasmine and Steven led Wins and a very out-of-it Jess down to the train station, where the other competitors were milling around, saying goodbye, and getting ready to go. Jess made a beeline for the District One train to sleep off her headache, while Wins looked for a very good friend.

"Hi Chloe."

"Hi Wins."

"I'm going home now."

"I know. Me too."

Wins looked Chloe in the eye, then gave her girlfriend the biggest hug she'd ever given in her life. "I'm gonna miss you a lot."

"I'm gonna miss you too. Will you write to me?"

"Yeah, of course. Will you write to me?"

"If you write me first." The two hugged again.

"Come on, Chloe!" called Boebette, her escort. "We have to go."

"One more hug!"

"Fine. One more hug and then we're going."

Chloe looked at Wins, tearing up. "Maybe I can visit?"

"Maybe. I'm gonna miss you. I love you."

"I love you too." As Boebette led Chloe back to the Two train, Wins ran back to her train, tears welling up in her eyes.

It had been all of thirty seconds, but all she wanted to do was be with Chloe again.


	76. 11

_11_ _th_ _Place: Myranda Lidano, District Two Female_

* * *

Myranda wasn't completely sure how she was going to fare in the Events. She was feeling moderately confident going into the reveal, but a number of the competitors who she perceived to be as strong as her were still left. And yet, Chloe and Damien were still in. So it just… there didn't seem to be a pattern. That's what really made the Events different from the Games. The Games were predictable: the weaker competitors usually went out in the Bloodbath, while the stronger ones were left to duke it out at the end. And when the Games didn't quite follow that pattern, they were even more exciting! But still pretty predictable.

There was one major advantage to the Events over the Games, though: everyone lived at the end. And that meant that you could fall in love and not worry about what would happen if one or both of you died and how it could mess up the whole Career pack vibe. Myranda was the last person to expect to fall in love during the Events; she had been trying at all costs to avoid it, just like a Games tribute would. But somehow, she'd fallen for that girl from Nine. And Myranda would never regret it.

As Wins finished her interview, the green lights under the stage flashed, indicating to the competitors to return to their launch plates. Myranda hadn't moved, but she had sat down to take her weight off of her feet. The mood became tense again, just as it did before Dorian and Harleigh announced each placement.

"And now. Coming in eleventh place, please welcome, Myranda Lidano!"

Shocked and dejected, Myranda walked towards the center of the circle. As the glass cylinder lowered around her and her plate began to rise, she registered what was probably the worst thing about the Events. See, in the Games, if you placed poorly, you wouldn't have to live with any guilt about it for the rest of your life.


	77. 10

_10_ _th_ _Place: Luna Powell, District Five Female_

* * *

Luna was generally not the kind of person to do anything crazy. But taking the Shot was something she had looked forward to for a very long time. Sure, she wasn't Reaping eligible. But if the fire had caused any more damage than just her own house, she and her siblings could have easily been put under a statute. The reminder of just how close she'd come to being Reaped hung over her head, and so she was beyond thrilled to have the safety of both her age and the Events. And the Shot was symbolic of that freedom that she'd been granted. She'd already taken it once, having turned 18 before the summer. Why not take it again?

Excitedly, Luna followed Desi and the other eighteen-year-olds to a bar in the main square. When they arrived, Luna was sure that she'd entered another world. The entire bar glowed like a gemstone! Sparkling jewels of all sizes covered the walls, and it seemed like the bar itself was carved out of one giant emerald.

Of course it was an emerald.

Desi escorted the competitors to a table where a tray of small green shot glasses were waiting for them. "Well, I think a lot of you know what's about to happen. After you take your Shot, you can feel free to order one other drink at the bar. Just one, though. Have fun!" She placed a bottle of vodka on the table and left.

"Do any of your districts have a custom of how to take the Shot?" asked Crixus.

"No, but because you're asking, I think yours does," replied Myranda.

"Back home, the youngest person pours all the shots, and the oldest person makes a little speech before they take the shot. Do you wanna go with that?" The others shrugged in agreement.

"I picked colors first," offered Luna, "so I guess that makes me the oldest. So who's the youngest?"

"Did anyone turn eighteen after November 13?" Sol asked. Everyone shook their heads. "So I pour, then. Does anyone not want?" Nobody responded, so Sol poured out eight shots, then offered one to each competitor. "Luna?"

Not a woman of many words, Luna lifted her shot glass up. "To life, survival, the Events, and a better Panem!"

And they drank.


	78. 9, 8

_9_ _th_ _Place: Damien Colver, District Five Male_

* * *

 _Dear Serenity,_

 _I finally got your address from the Capitol, so now I can write to you! How are you? Did you get home safely? I doubt anything would happen on the way back, but it's always good to ask._

 _Did your parents let you take a day off from school? My parents did. But I wanted to go back to gymnastics right away. Trampolining is more fun than anything, and I like my friends! When I got back, I was almost instantly the most popular in the whole school, which was a little bit crazy, but kinda fun. Were you popular too when you got back? Do you want it to last?_

 _I was talking to my mom, and she said that I might be able to visit you at some point in the spring. I've never been to Eight before. I bet it's kinda like Five, right?_

 _I put my address where my mom says the address of someone writing a letter should go. I've never written a letter before because I've never needed to so she helped me. Please write back!_

 _-Damien._

"All right, mommy! My letter's ready!" Damien said.

"I'm so proud of you for writing a letter," his mother gushed, coming over to her son and giving him a peck on the cheek. "Do you wanna come with me to the post office?"

"Sure!"

Following his mother's guidance, Damien put the letter in an envelope, sealed it, and then trotted along after his mother to the post office. The kind man at the desk helped Damien address it to District Eight, let the young boy put the stamp on himself, and even took Damien back to put it in the proper box. "You must be pretty good at sorting mail, having been in the Events."

"I guess so."

With each passing day after he sent the letter, Damien got more and more nervous. Why hadn't he heard from Serenity yet? Was she OK? Was she safe? Did she make it back?

But Damien had nothing to worry about. And he was beyond thrilled when he returned home from gymnastics one day to find a letter from Serenity waiting for him.

* * *

 _8_ _th_ _Place: Alexei Roth, District Three Male_

* * *

 _Dear Ramona,_

 _How are you? I haven't heard from you in quite a few weeks. Have you been having fun back in Ten? Have people been swarming you about the Events as well? I've had a little bit of an easier time because Sinsya is also here, so we've kind of split the brunt of the questions. Although we are in different programs so we can't split the attention evenly._

 _Anyway, I miss Ten. I miss you too. How are you? Have there been any major changes back home? How's my family? How are the cows?_

 _I don't think I'll be back until the summer, when we have the break for the Games. I think it's mostly built in for those of us coming in from out of town, just in case we lose a family member or friend. I guess it's nice of them. Will you be home, or are you going away? Hopefully we can hang out :)._

 _Your friend,  
Alexei_

 _..._

 _Dear Ramona,_

 _I didn't hear back from you, so I figured my letter got lost in the mail. You remember how crazy D9's sorting system is, don't you? ;)_

 _Are you having a good year? Did you get back into the swing of classes OK? I had trouble with it. I've been working really hard on some awesome CompSci stuff. I know that you never understood what I was talking about but you at least pretended to seem interested. I always appreciated that._

 _I want to hear about what books you're reading! I need some new recommendations. Did you find anything good?_

 _Hopefully I'll see you soon,  
Alexei_

 _..._

 _Dear Ramona,_

 _I can't believe two letters would have gotten lost. Did you get hurt? Are you OK? Please tell me you're OK_

 _..._

 _Dear Ramona,_

 _Please write back to me._


	79. 7

_7_ _th_ _Place: Crixus Anjou, District Eleven Male_

* * *

It didn't surprise Crixus that, when the train arrived, he didn't have any family waiting for him. It surprised him a bit that nobody was waiting for Mallory, but he wasn't surprised that nobody was there for him. He didn't really deserve anybody, after all.

But he was determined to rectify it.

As he disembarked, Crixus said goodbye to Mallory and Ivie, who got in a car together for some reason, and got in a car of his own. "Where would you like to go?" the driver asked.

"Well, I'd love to go to the Varadis' flower shop please."

"Of course."

When they arrived, Crixus asked the driver to wait for a moment. He went into the flower shop and asked the owner, "I need flowers that mean 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you' and they need to look good in a bouquet."

"Purple hyacinths are good ones for forgiveness. Is there anything more specific you can do with I love you?"

"Something familial and platonic."

"I have just the thing." Mr. Varadi bustled around in the shop before putting together some flowers. "Hyacinths, roses, lilies, and tulips. I think these will look lovely together, and do just the trick. Now a bit of baby's breath for the aesthetic. And there you go."

"How much does it cost?"

"You represented our district, and you did us proud. First bouquet here, free."

"No, I insist. Once I get my first monthly stipend, I promise to pay you for the bouquet."

"You're a good man. Let's talk when that happens."

"You're a good man too."

Then, Crixus got back in the car and directed the driver back to his childhood home. When he arrived, he took a deep breath, then knocked firmly on the door.

It was time to apologize to his mother. It was time to rejoin his family, if they would take him.

It was time to make things right again.


	80. 6

_6_ _th_ _Place: Henley Moriarty, District Thirteen Female_

* * *

Unlike in many of the other districts, the children of Thirteen made no big deal about the return of their compatriots from the Events. Military children were used to their family and friends being relocated on a whim, and so while Henley's friends were excited to see her, it didn't feel like they'd missed her while she was gone. Henley was a tad bit disappointed that they didn't miss her, but that at least made it easier for her to throw herself into her training once more.

She clearly had a ways to go.

On one of Henley's first days back, she was assigned to go to the Block, a training simulator mimicking the streets of the Capitol. While the Block was primarily used by the military squadrons, the SpOps people got their chance to go in every now and then.

"Now, your mission is simple," explained the instructor. "Hidden around the block are seven buttons. Whoever presses all seven in the least amount of time, wins. Understood?" The SpOps kids nodded. "Who wants to go first?"

"I will," volunteered Henley.

"OK. Your time begins in three. Two. One. Go!"

Henley leaped through the door to the Block, running through the mock streets to find the buttons. But they seemed almost impossible to find! No matter what she did or where she ran, they were nowhere to be found.

Until she realized why she'd been put in that training session. It wasn't to test her ability to find the buttons.

It was to test her ability to look carefully for them.

Henley slowed her speed down, took a deep breath, and began to walk through the streets more slowly. And she was rewarded for her patience by finding the first of the buttons, hidden within an elaborate carving on one of the buildings.

Henley was going to show Ruby that she'd learned from her mistakes in the Events. Mark her words.


	81. 5

_5_ _th_ _Place: Kitt Mosley, District Ten_

* * *

It sucked to not win. Kitt was used to doing well at everything he did. At most things he did. But now he had dramatically failed. Fifth place! He'd only gotten fifth place! And that made him sad. Kitt just couldn't bring himself to participate in the party. He just sat, on a bench, off to the side, moping.

Even sadder was the sight of all of the eighteen-year-olds, each holding a drink, smiling and laughing all together. He wasn't that much younger than the youngest of them, and he was pretty significantly older than the other seventeen-year-olds in the Events. If he was so close to their age, why couldn't he join in with them? It just wasn't fair.

As Kitt sat, moping, he heard footsteps coming up behind him. "Kitt. Kitt!" whispered Sharen.

"What?" moped Kitt.

"Come with me."

"I don't wanna. I'm sad."

"Just come!" Sharen dragged Kitt into an alley, where she'd gathered all of the sixteen and seventeen-year-old competitors. "Check out what I've got." She procured a bottle of vodka and a number of shot glasses. "If the eighteen-year-olds can take their Shot, so can we!"

Henley raised her eyebrows. "But that's illegal."

"But it's unfair that they can do it and we can't."

"So then where do you draw the line? Are you gonna let the twelve-year-olds do this?"

"No, they're way too young. And you don't have to either if you don't want to."

"Well, I'm not gonna do it. I refuse to get into trouble."

Sage chimed in, "Yeah. I don't think I want to either."

"Sure," smiled Sharen. "But if this gets out, you're dead to me." The two left. "Everyone else down?"

"I don't think I want either, now that I think about it," Liana stated solemnly, making her way out of the alley.

"Let me pour," volunteered Silas. "My dad works at a restaurant, so I know how to pour a shot. Then we're only having a shot."

"Fine," said Sharen.

As Silas handed him his shot, Kitt smiled for the first time since he was announced in fifth place. It wasn't that he was excited for the alcohol, rather, he was excited about taking part in a tradition that he could do again with his friends in Ten, sharing with them the things he'd learned from his friends from other districts.

After all, wasn't that the point of the Events?

* * *

 _Note: I do not, in any way, encourage or condone underage drinking._


	82. 4, 3

_4_ _th_ _Place: Nell Edwards, District Six Female_

* * *

Upon her return from the Capitol, Nell naturally sat down to write about it. She was, after all, a journalist, and this was the perfect piece for her to submit to the paper. It would be a top scoop!

 _My Time in The Events: A Tell-All Piece by Nell Edwards_

 _This January and February, I was honored to be selected as a competitor in the first ever Inter-District Inter-Disciplinary Events. These Events were designed as a competition, similar in structure to The Hunger Games, in which the competitors took part in twenty-eight smaller competitions, each one earning them points. The final score was made up of a seventy-thirty ratio of points from the challenges and points earned by popular vote across Panem._

 _The driving story of the Events were the dastardly actions of Aviel Nitsa. The competitor from District Nine took advantage of every other competitor by sabotaging them, doing such evil things as taking crucial objects during the competitions and otherwise impeding their progress. While the intention of the Events was to bring together the competitors from all different districts and truly promote district unity, Ruby likely did not intend for the competitors to rise up against a common enemy. However, that is exactly what happened. Many competitors rose up in arms against the evil deeds of the young man from District Nine, working together to get back at him. And their work was successful; somehow, Aviel got what he deserved and placed last in the Events._

Nell then went on to describe, in detail, every single competition that she competed in in the Events, as well as every single competitor in the Events, bringing the article up to a total of approximately nine billion words. "Dad, I finished my article!" she called.

"Would you like me to read it?"

"Yep!"

Nell brought her article to her father, an actual professional journalist, to read it over. He looked really interested in it as he read it, at least. When he finished, he put it down and smiled at his daughter. "Well, that was something, honey."

"Was it good? Did you like it?"

"It… it left me speechless."

* * *

 _3_ _rd_ _Place: Solomon Mikkelson, District Four Male_

 _Trigger Warining: Brief Mentions of Suicide_

* * *

Walking into the ballroom in the President's mansion was like walking into another world. Sol was amazed by the hundreds of candles in the chandeliers and on the tables, some of which even appeared to be floating! Hundreds of Capitolites, many of whom were high up in the Games and the Events, were standing, watching as the competitors, the Games Victors, and the Victor of the Events processed into the space. After the grand entrance, the music began to play, indicating that it was time to dance.

Initially, Sol spent time dancing with some of the other competitors, then some wealthy Capitolites. But soon, he noticed Silas, sitting down on the side, looking incredibly upset.

That probably wasn't good.

Politely excusing himself from the woman with whom he was dancing, Sol went over to sit next to Silas. "Hi, buddy."

"Nrgh."

"Silas, what's wrong?"

"Aviel. He… he was using me."

"He was?" Sol pretended to be surprised.

"Yes. He convinced me to sabotage Myranda. He didn't even really want to love me.

"How do you handle getting your heart broken?"

Sol took a deep breath. He supposed he had gotten his heart broken once, when Owen… sacrificed himself. Even now, a year and a half later, Sol hadn't figured out what his boyfriend was thinking, why he stepped off of his podium mere seconds before the Games began. Did Owen never care about Sol? Clearly, that couldn't have been the case – Owen had volunteered for him, after all. Plus, the Careers that year were particularly strong, and Owen wasn't particularly trained. But Owen had never appeared suicidal… and the loss still hurt, even after this long.

"I don't know, Silas. I don't think I've totally figured it out yet."


	83. The Final Two

"In seventh place… Crixus Anjou!"

Chloe couldn't quite believe it.

She still hadn't heard her name.

She'd kind of figured that most of little kids would place low. And she was kind of right. Ramona placed low, and Alder, Sinsya, and Morrel were all kind of clumped up. Winslet had placed what she thought was really really well, in twelfth. And Damien even got ninth! How could someone so little, so comparatively untrained, so… so different still be in the running? It was just kind of… unbelievable.

"Our sixth-place competitor is none other than Miss Henley Moriarty!"

Chloe was excited to be doing so well. But she truly would have switched places with Wins in a heartbeat. Like, it was good to do well yourself. But it was even better when your friends did well. And Wins was more than a friend. Maybe if Chloe got more money than Wins for placing higher, she could help her friend too. Her… girlfriend.

"Coming in fifth place… Kitt Mosley!"

Wow, Chloe was still in it. She was really still in it! And she'd even made the top four! That was higher than she ever imagined that she could place. Maybe…

Maybe she really could win it.

* * *

As competitors kept getting called, Aelyx just kept getting more and more confident. They were knocking out his competition left and right! Myranda had gotten fifteenth place – that was crazy low for someone of his caliber! Sage, gone. Ventus, done. Henley, done. Crixus and Kitt, both knocked out! Now, Aelyx was just a little bit worried about Sol. He was pretty strong. But Nell and Chloe, the other two competitors? Pieces of cake.

"In fourth place is Nell Edwards!"

OK. So Sol was still in the running. That was fine. Aelyx still wasn't nervous. As long as Chloe was still in the race, Aelyx had to do better than she did. That kid was tiny. T-I-N-Y tiny! She probably couldn't even hold a fly, much less hurt it. If Sol were to come in third, Aelyx would be guaranteed the win.

"And our third place competitor is Solomon Mikkelson!"

Yes! That was what Aelyx wanted to hear. That was exactly what Aelyx wanted to hear.

As Sol's plate began to rise, Portia, the stage manager, entered the area beneath the stage. "Aelyx, and Chloe, come with me. Quickly, please, we only have one commercial break." Chloe quickly and obediently rushed after Portia, but Aelyx swaggered along slowly behind. He didn't have to rush to the announcement of his Victory. They all had to wait for him, after all, to announce that he had won.

The two competitors were led by Portia to a pair of plates next to each other. "You two will rise up together, then be interviewed effectively one at a time by Harleigh and Dorian. You can decide between yourselves who goes first. Then, once you've both been interviewed, Harleigh will be presented an envelope by Garnet and Elizah's daughter, Isabelle, with the Victor's name inside! Celebration, presentation of crown, et cetera. If you win, you'll wear the crown all night, through the ball and the party. Understood?" The pair nodded.

"Now, decide who's going first so that I know what to tell Harleigh and Dorian."

Chloe looked very far up at Aelyx. "Do you care when you go? You can pick."

"I'll go second." _The Victor always gets interviewed last, after all._

"Sounds good to me!"

As the pair's plates began to rise up, Aelyx basked in the glory of the crowd's applause. They were cheering for him! The boy was ready to claim his destiny as Victor of the Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events.

* * *

 _Nissan Triska, Victor of the 134_ _th_ _Hunger Games_

* * *

As the name of competitor after competitor was announced, Nissan felt himself getting both more and more nervous, and more and more excited. His competitor, the person he had mentored, actually had a chance to win! More than a chance. A big chance! Nissan was personally invested in Aelyx; he had worked with him so much before the Events started that, even though he didn't actually spend much time with Aelyx helping him, all Nissan wanted was for Aelyx to win. And if he didn't… well, Nissan would probably be as upset as Aelyx would be. He wanted everyone he worked with to do super well! That was very important.

So when third place was announced, and it wasn't Aelyx, Nissan felt his heart soar. Aelyx was one of the final two! He had, like, a fifty-fifty chance at winning! And from what he could remember, Aelyx had done really really well in all of the challenges.

Maybe Aelyx would really win!

As the broadcast went to break, Ariel Marsh came over to Nissan's seat in the box. "You did good, kid."

"He hasn't won yet."

"But for your first time mentoring, getting second or first is really good. My kid got 23rd."

"Your kid? She's older than you. And married. With an actual child."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm still protective over her."

"Fair."

Nissan smiled. "I'm glad you were here with me for this, Ariel. It's nice to have someone here to protect me."

"And I'm glad you're here too. Sometimes I wish there were more of us." The two looked at each other sadly, Nissan cuddling up to Ariel's side.

After a moment, the broadcast returned. Nissan felt his heart rate speed up quickly. This was the moment where he'd see if he actually succeeded as a mentor. But that all depended on who Aelyx was up against.

Dorian and Harleigh talked up to the audience and bantered for a bit before saying, "Now, ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome our final two competitors, Aelyx Stark and Chloe Antoni."

Oh no. Aelyx was up against Chloe.

On the one hand, Aelyx definitely had the best shot at winning of the two of them. Chloe was just… really tiny. And Nissan didn't remember how many competitions she'd done well in. The problem was, Nissan really liked Chloe. He wanted to be friends with her. And he didn't want her to be sad if she lost. But on the other hand, if Chloe won, Aelyx would lose. And Nissan would be sad.

That meant that, whoever won, somebody would lose. And that was very very sad.

Finally, Dorian and Harleigh finished interviewing the two competitors. And that meant that it was time to announce the Victor.

"The time has finally come," began Dorian. "After fourteen days and twenty-eight competitions, with a total of over seventeen thousand points logged across all of the challenges and over seven thousand relative participation points distributed, we are finally ready to announce the winner. Isabelle, the envelope please!"

Garnet and Elizah's five-year-old daughter Isabelle skipped onto the stage. Smiling, she expectantly looked up at Harleigh and Dorain. "Hi!"

"Isabelle, do you have the envelope?"

"Oh. I forgot." She ran offstage, then ran back on with a big golden envelope. "Here you go!"

"Thank you, darling," smiled Harleigh. "You can go now." Isabelle ran back off stage to her babysitter, Finn.

"Harleigh, as the announcer, would you like to do the honors?"

"Yes, yes I would." Harleigh carefully slid open the envelope. "And the Victor of the First Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events is…

"La La Land!"

Everyone in the room's heart stopped. "That can't be what it says!" Dorian said alarmedly.

"You're right, it's not."

Dorian took a deep breath. "Give me that envelope. The _actual_ Victor of the First Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events is…

"Chloe Antoni!"

* * *

 **Well, that was quite an exciting day, wasn't it? I apologize to those of you who got like 30 updates today, and by that I mean #sorrynotsorry. It was a way to build suspense, what can I say?**

 **I'm not going to be doing individual epilogues for every character, because I think the drabbles kind of serve as those eulogy things that most people do! But I can say that I genuinely enjoyed writing every single character in this story! They were all super fun and dynamic and I loved getting to write arcs for all of them! We won't see every single one reappear in IDIDE2, but they have all made an indelible mark on this universe and I'm so excited to have them!**

 **And now, of course, about our Victor! As you guys know, I had no say in this matter; it was 70% the challenge scores decided by a random number generator, and 30% your check-ins. Using the calculations explained in Liana's section, Chloe was about 20 points up on Aelyx, which is pretty damn good! (I'll have the spreadsheet available on my profile to see how all the points tallied up in the end.) When this story started, I didn't have any preferred Victor, but as Chloe began to shoot up in popularity, I fell in love with this little ball of cuteness. And I think a lot of readers did, too, considering she got over 100 more participation points than the next person! Chloe is just an adorable bean who has so much room to grow and develop, just like the Events! I couldn't think of any better person to be my first Events Victor, and I'm so happy that I get the chance to write her and grow her up. Congrats on your second Victor, Celtic, and also your second from me because Calytrix definitely still counts.**

 **A few last updates! At this point, I think this story will have two epilogues that will go up… at some point. And then IDIDE2 will start updating again after that! If you're curious about how exactly the placements were calculated, there will be a spreadsheet up on my profile with all of the points and how those were talented, plus the chronological order of the drabbles and some data analysis of the participation points by my spoiler buddy, Lauren (TheEngineeringGames)!**

 **I've really had such a great time writing this story, and it's been fantastic to bring these characters to life. I hope you've enjoyed it too! Thanks for taking this journey with me; we're not quite done yet, though!**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**


	84. Epilogue I

_Chloe Antoni, Victor of the First Events_

* * *

Dorian had to have misspoken. He had to. There was no way that her name was inside of that envelope. She was up against Aelyx. Big, strong, tall Aelyx! How could she have possibly beaten him? The girl was completely shellshocked, standing still, mouth wide open, letting the waves of exuberant applause from the audience wash over.

It just didn't feel real. At least, until she looked offstage and saw Winslet, cheering wildly and nearly crying from happiness, from support for her girlfriend. And that was when it sunk in.

She, Chloe Antoni, was a Victor.

Chloe's open mouth morphed into the widest grin. She looked up at Aelyx, who gave her a little pat on the head before being led off-stage by one of the crew members. Anything Dorian and Harleigh were saying just went in one ear and out the other as Chloe began to fully grasp what being a Victor meant. It meant a tremendous amount of responsibility, as the face of the Events at least for the next year, probably until she died. Stories of the first Games Victor, coincidentally also from Two, still circulated around Panem, and Chloe had a feeling that she would receive the same or similar treatment. More importantly, it meant a better life for herself, one way or another. Now that she was a Victor, her parents had to keep their promise; by becoming a Victor, she had earned the right to be called Chloe and not P… P… her deadname. But she could also have a better life by distancing herself from her parents; why should they reap the benefits of her being a Victor when they had mistreated her so badly? She was lucky that she had never been abused by them physically, but more likely than not, going back to live with them would not be good for her. And now she didn't have to.

At least, she hoped not. She was, after all, still only twelve; she would still need some sort of guardian living with her.

Chloe was distracted from her thoughts by the playing of the national anthem. She looked up to see Ruby approaching her with little Isabelle, who was carrying a cushion holding the prettiest crown Chloe had ever seen. It was wrought out of gold, with red gems inlaid in the crown, sparkling and gleaming in the light. As Ruby placed it on Chloe's head with a genuine smile, the little girl felt more like a princess than she'd ever felt in her life.

After some further pomp, circumstances, and cheering, the broadcast formally ended. Chloe, still glowing, was led offstage to where her friends and fellow competitors were waiting, eager to congratulate the newest Victor. All of the competitors, but especially the younger ones, seemed so genuinely happy for Chloe, congratulating her, giving her hugs and handshakes, and generally just being kind and supportive to the young girl. It made Chloe so happy to have so many people happy for her! She felt so special.

After being allowed to congratulate Chloe for approximately seven seconds, the competitors were whisked to the President's Mansion for the Victory Ball. Chloe and Myranda were led to the same limo, where the older girl gave Chloe a big hug. "I'm so proud of you, honey!" Myranda gushed.

"Thank you," Chloe grinned.

"You've done our district proud, I'm sure. Getting the first Victor of the Events is something that Two will hold with pride for a long time. And aren't you glad you were yourself while you did it?"

"Yeah, I am."

"And now we literally just get to celebrate you!" Myranda gave Chloe a little boop on the nose. "That's pretty cool."

"It'll be just like a birthday party, only better!"

When they arrived, Myranda was led to the ladies' dressing room while Chloe, being a Victor, got her own room in which to get dressed. She was met there by her stylist, Vivia Jonet. Chloe recognized how incredibly lucky she was to have Vivia as her stylist. Not only was Vivia immensely talented as a stylist, but she also had experience with transgender women; after all, her daughter, Varinia, was also trans. Somehow, Chloe had gotten a stylist who was perfect for her. It was almost too good to be true.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't our newest Victor!" proclaimed Vivia. "Are you ready to be a princess tonight?"

"I already feel like a princess," smiled Chloe. "This dress is just so pretty! And the crown…"

"Well, I think you'll like your outfit for the Ball even better. Now, close your eyes so I can get you dressed."

Reluctantly, as she didn't want to take her pretty dress off, Chloe obliged. She took off her red dress and shoes and closed her eyes, allowing Vivia to slide another dress on that felt a little bit bigger and heavier. Then, Vivia helped Chloe into a pair of shoes that had a low heel, to make her look not _so_ short, only kinda short. "OK, dear. Open up!"

When Chloe opened her eyes, she was thrilled to see the person standing in front of her. If she had felt like a princess before, the combination of her golden ballgown and her Victor's crown turned her into… well…

"Vivia, I'm a real princess! I don't just feel like one, I am one!"

"Yes, you are, darling. And don't anyone tell you otherwise. Now, let me do your hair and makeup." Delicately, Vivia touched up the already minimal makeup Chloe was wearing, replacing her lip color with a shimmery pink. Then, she took the crown off of Chloe's head, deftly put her hair up in an elaborate updo, and then replaced the crown. "What do you think?"

"I'm… I'm just so happy."

"And you have every right to be."

A knock sounded at the door. "Madam Victor! Are you almost ready?" called Portia Andeers, who, as the stage manager, was responsible for the entire evening. A slight pause followed.

"Chloe, she's talking to you," Vivia nudged.

"Yes! I think I'm ready."

"Excellent."

"Madam Victor," marveled Chloe. "I'll have to get used to that."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Not at all."

"Well, have fun tonight, my darling. And remember, this is all for you." Vivia gave Chloe another smile, then opened the door and slipped out, allowing Portia to enter.

"OK, dearie. Are you ready for tonight?" Portia asked.

"Yeah!"

"Awesome. I'm going to go over the plan really quickly with you so you know what's going to happen. In a little bit, I'm going to send up one of my stagehands to wait with you, because Ruby decided that nobody else should see you until you're announced as the Victor; she will bring you to the procession when it's time. There's going to be a very specific procession tonight; you might remember it from the night of the 125th Games Victory Ball."

"I was two."

"So, nope. Basically what'll happen is the other competitors will process in, then the other Victors, and then the Emerald clan. And finally, you'll get your own entrance down the stairs! After that, there's the formal dance section. There will be dinner and stuff and it'll be all lovely, and then afterward you'll be led to the street party! Now, there will be bodyguards for the entire event to watch over the competitors, but you will also get your own personal bodyguard because you are, after all, the Victor."

"What if I get tired and I want to go home?"

"Um. Well. Maybe? We'll figure it out as the night goes on. I expect the block party to go until around midnight or one, but it might go later."

"I've never been up so late in all my life. How do I stay up?"

"We'll give you coffee. Now, I have to go get things started. This is Hestia. She will be staying with you tonight, and she'll take you over to the staircase when it's time. Have fun, Madam Victor!"

After some waiting, Hestia got the word from Portia that it was time to go. Kindly, she led Chloe over to the top of the staircase. "When you hear your name, start going down. Have fun!" And just like that, she was gone. Obediently, she waited until she heard, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Victor of the First Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events, Chloe Antoni!" proclaimed proudly from the ballroom, then took a deep breath and confidently walked down the staircase.

This was her moment to shine, after all.

As Chloe walked into the ballroom, what she saw took her breath away. Candles, shiny objects, fancy dressed Capitolites, tables, a giant shiny dance floor.

Winslet.

Winslet looked beautiful in her dress and her sash and her bright and shiny prosthetics sparkling in the candlelight. As much as Chloe wanted to look around and take everything in, she only had eyes for her beautiful partner. So once the music commenced and the others attending the ball began to dance, Chloe made a beeline for her girlfriend.

"Hi, Winslet."

"Hello, Madam Victor." Wins performed a sweeping bow towards Chloe.

"Oh, Wins. Don't be so formal with me. I can still just be Chloe."

"I know," she smiled.

"Wins, you look so pretty. Just like a princess!"

"Me?" Wins looked taken aback. "No, Chloe. You look like a princess."

"Well, you're a prettier princess."

"No, you're the prettier princess."

"No, you are."

"No, you are."

Instinctively, Chloe leaned in and gave Winslet a kiss on the lips. "We both are."

The two youngsters made their way to a cocktail table, where they just… sat and spent time with each other. It didn't matter if they were talking or if they were silent; just being with each other was enough to make them both happy. Every now and then, Chloe would be asked to dance by an important Capitolite, and she would politely decline; she was a little bit young to be dancing with adults. But when Chloe heard one song in particular, she knew that this was an OK song to dance to.

 _Hello, Young lovers whoever you are  
I hope your troubles are few  
All my good wishes go with you tonight  
I've been in love like you  
Be brave, young lovers, and follow your star  
Be brave and faithful and true  
Cling very close to each other tonight  
I've been in love like you_

Chloe made her way back over to their table and held out her hand to Winslet. "May I have this dance?"

"Yes, you may. Do you remember how?"

"Not really. But I bet you can help me."

Chloe held out her hand to Wins, who took it and led Chloe out to the dance floor. As soon as they were back in hold, everything came back to them, just like riding a bicycle. The two were quickly able to do more advanced moves, such as actually traveling across the floor rather than just waltzing in place. The feeling of spinning and twirling around the floor made Chloe feel happier and freer than she had ever felt before. In fact, this was by far the happiest Chloe had ever been in her whole life.

Once the ball, to Chloe's dismay, drew to a close, Hestia led Chloe to a small dressing room, where Vivia was waiting for Chloe. "All right. We don't have all that much time. Let me help you get the dress off."

"I don't want to!" Chloe exclaimed. "It's so pretty! Even prettier than the last one!"

"Yes, but I don't think you want to run around outside in that dress. You don't want to get it dirty."

"That's true."

"And you can't ride a carousel in that dress."

"There's a carousel?" exclaimed Chloe.

"Yep!" replied Vivia, who didn't know for sure that there was a carousel, but also didn't know that there wasn't one.

"Fine, I'll take it off." She turned around, allowing Vivia to unzip and pull off the dress, then slide off the crown. "The crown too?"

"I don't want it getting lost or broken. But don't worry, I'll keep it safe for you. And you'll have more than enough shine tonight. Now, let's get you dressed quickly so I can redo your hair."

Vivia helped Chloe into a skin-colored bodysuit to help keep the girl's body warm. Then, Vivia handed Chloe a red t-shirt, sparkly gold overall shorts, a pair of red knee socks, and gold high-top skater shoes. As Chloe got dressed, Vivia took down Chloe's hair and put it into pigtails, then curled them a little bit and added a shiny gold bow with a red gem in the center to each one. Then, she touched up Chloe's make-up, giving her a bit more shimmer above her eyes and touching up her lipstick a little bit. "All right. You're good to go! Have fun tonight, Chloe."

"Oh, I will."

Chloe waved goodbye to Vivia, then left the dressing room and was promptly whisked away by Hestia to the block party. If she was tired at all before she got there, once she arrived, the bright neon lights and all of the sounds and attractions at the party totally woke her up. "Where am I supposed to be?" Chloe asked Hestia.

Hestia explained, "I'm really just here to follow you around. You can do whatever you want!"

"Ooh! What is there to do?"

"There's karaoke, there are rides and games, and I'm sure there's food…"

Chloe then realized that she had never eaten dinner. "Yeah, I think food would be good. Do you know where I can get some?"

"No, but we can look."

Using an official badge given to her by Ruby, Hestia led Chloe through the streets of the Capitol until they got to the stands of street food. On the way, they ran into Ramona, Damien, Serenity, Alder, Alexei, and Winslet in quick succession, who quickly joined Chloe on her hunt for snacks. Eventually, they came to an entire street of standard carnival fare. "All right, kiddos. What do you want?"

"Ice cream corn dogs cotton candy popcorn funnel cake a whole turkey leg fried sandwich cookies!" screamed the seven kids all at the same time. They looked at each other, then proceeded to all scream out the same answer again.

Hestia took a book of tickets out of her pocket and handed two to each competitor. "All right, kids. Go get whatever you want and then come back." The kids scattered among the rest of the crowd, making it nearly impossible for Hestia to know where they were without the help of the handy dandy tracking device she had with her. A few moments later, they had returned with an inordinate amount of sugar between the seven of them. Alder, for one, had an entire bucket full of fried sandwich cookies, and Chloe was licking a giant rainbow swirly lollipop as big as her head. Only Ramona was logical enough to buy something moderately healthy: a turkey leg nearly the size of her own leg.

Once they finished eating, Hestia asked, "What do you want to do next?"

"Rides! Rides! Rides!" exclaimed Alder. Quickly, the rest of the kids joined in, running around Hestia like hyper bunny rabbits.

"All right, follow me this way!" Hestia led her pack of puppies through the block party, finally reaching the area of the Capitol in which all the rides were situated. "Which one do you want to do first?"

"That one!" Chloe exclaimed, pointing to a giant wheel spinning on the horizon. "I bet you can see the whole Capitol from the top."

"That's the idea. Is everyone else OK with it?" Hestia asked.

"Chloe's the Victor!" Wins pointed out. "If she wants to do it, I'm totally OK with it." Everyone else agreed.

Again making use of her badge, Hestia navigated the kids to the front of the line for the Ferris wheel. The seven kids piled into one of the cars, then squealed excitedly as the door was closed and their cab began to lift up. Chloe was thrilled by how high up they were, and how much of the Capitol they could see. There were so many bright colors! But the coolest part was the floor of the cab, which had arrows pointing in the direction of every district. When Chloe looked in the direction of District Two, she noticed fireworks exploding over the district. Those were Victory fireworks! For her! At least somewhere in her home district, they were celebrating her!

It was unbelievable.

The kids spent the rest of the night bouncing back and forth between eating more sugar and going on the rides and just generally running Hestia ragged. One time around on the Ferris wheel, Chloe and Wins even got to go in a car by themselves, sharing a kiss at the very top of the wheel. Finally, at around midnight, Hestia noticed that most of the kids looked pretty tired. "All right, kiddos. I think it's time to go to sleep," she asserted.

"Do I have to?" asked Chloe.

"I mean, it would be good to."

"But this is a party for me!" she exclaimed. "That's like leaving your own birthday party early."

"Well, I think your friends are pretty tired."

Alder yawned. "Yeah. I wanna sleep." The others nodded in agreement.

"So, I'll take you all back, and then Chloe, you and I can go back out if you want." Chloe nodded eagerly in agreement. She skipped energetically alongside Hestia as the others trekked along back towards the training center shuttle, where another guardian was enlisted to take the other kids back. Chloe made sure to say goodbye to everybody before they left, and gave Wins in particular a big hug. She eagerly waved goodbye to the shuttle as it drove away to the training center.

"Can we go back to the Ferris wheel now?" she asked Hestia.

"You really like that ride, don't you?"

"Yeah! I really like it a lot. You can see everything!"

"Well, let's go for it," smiled Hestia. The two went back to the Ferris wheel. The two sat down on the bench, and Chloe immediately curled up into Hestia's side, watching the sights of the Capitol go by with wide and wondering eyes. In fact, that was exactly the position in which she fell asleep, still holding an unfinished giant swirly rainbow lollipop and unbelievably, totally, completely happy. It had truly been the best night of her young life.

Even though she never got to ride the carousel.


	85. Epilogue II

_Carissa Lovarre, Victor of the 125_ _th_ _Games_

* * *

Even before Chloe won, Carissa had begun to feel a strong maternal pull toward the little girl. It had always been in her nature to take others under her wing and protect them, as she had her sister, Janari, and her co-Victor, Lavender. Despite the fact that she had not mentored Chloe, Carissa knew that the little girl would need to be protected when she returned to Two no matter the result of the Events, and Carissa was fully prepared to volunteer for the responsibility. She wasn't entirely sure if Chloe's Victor would make it easier or harder. On the one hand, now she didn't have to protect Chloe from her parents. But Chloe was now an incredibly public figure in Panem; considering the newness of the Events, especially in Two, nobody could predict just what the pitfalls would be. And Carissa was ready to face them along with Chloe.

Nearly as soon as the broadcast ended, the Victors were rushed over to the President's mansion, where they divided up by district to get ready. Naturally, the largest room went to District Two, which had the largest number of living Victors at fourteen. Delphine, Two's member of the Victors' Council as the oldest functional living Victor, insisted that everyone get ready quickly so that the Victors could quickly meet. Once they were all ready, they sat around the table in the room.

"All right," opened Delphine. "We need to discuss as a council of Victors how we are going to approach Chloe winning. How do we present this to the district? How do we recognize Chloe, if at all? Are we in favor of the Events? Let's discuss."

Instantly, Carissa was up in arms. "I don't understand why this is a question. Chloe is a Victor! She won the Events. She will have a house in the Victor's Village. She is recognized by the Capitol as a Victor. Why don't we count her as a Victor?"

"She didn't kill," Mesa responded matter-of-factly. "No Two Victor has ever won without killing."

"Yeah, that doesn't matter," Orion Terminus chimed in. "It's more of an image thing. The cultural change that the Events will bring to Two will be radical. It will totally deconstruct the Academy system that we have to date. If we accept Chloe as a Victor, we accept the Events, and the cultural change that comes with them. And that's incredibly dangerous."

"But… but she's a Victor! She's earned being a Victor. And she did it not because she was a good killer; she literally won because people liked her. That has to count for something."

"I agree with Carissa," pointed out Arabelle. "I wasn't Chloe's mentor personally, but she is potentially more likeable than anyone from Two who has ever won any Capitol competition. She's really lovely, and I think we would all benefit from her presence just like we benefit when we see Jada, Jasper Hematite's kid."

"Not to mention that, if Ruby is buying into the Events, going against Ruby by not supporting the only Victor would be imbecilic," Hannibal pointed out. "We get the funding we need to have nearly every kid in Two in the Academies from the Capitol. If we go against her wishes, we could lose that funding. And we do not want to be stuck in a no-volunteers quell with anybody who isn't at least a little bit trained."

"But she goes so far against the image we've been trying to create for ourselves in Two!" Deidre exclaimed. "Everybody wants to be like me and Demetrius, and we wanted to be like Mesa and Orion. Where does Chloe fit into this?"

"Maybe she doesn't need to fit into the old mold," Carissa offered.

The debate continued for a few more minutes, Carissa coming out more strongly than any other Two Victor on Chloe's side. They had no right to discredit the little girl! She had earned her Victory just like all of the rest of them, just in a slightly different way. And Carissa was prepared to fight for this little girl for as long as necessary until they accepted her. She would do whatever it took, even if she angered so many people that she had to leave the district.

"I think we should put it to a vote," Delphine posited. "So we'll go around the table. An aye vote means that Chloe should be counted as a Victor for all intents and purposes, and a nay vote is that she shouldn't. I will not vote on this matter. Mesa?"

"Nay."

"Mason?"

"Nay," said Mason, borderline incoherently.

"Crash."

"I vote with Smash." Crash rarely voted on his own.

"Smash?"

"Aye, on the condition that she does not mentor for the Games."

"That's a given, I'd say. So that's two in favor, two against. Carissa?"

"Aye."

"Arabelle."

"Aye."

"Hannibal Lector."

"Nay."

"Hannibal Oriot."

"Aye."

"Zareth."

"Aye."

"Deidre?"

"Nay."

"Demetrius?"

"Nay."

"Orion?"

"Nay."

Delphine counted on her fingers. "Six and six. Ares, you're the deciding vote."

Ares thought for a moment. "I could never do something that put someone outside of the gender binary in danger; we go through too much in Two already. I vote aye."

"So that's seven in favor, six against. As far as we are all concerned, Chloe has all of the privileges and rights that come from being a Victor from Two. And no word of this to her."

Carissa was finally able to breathe. Chloe had all of the rights that she deserved. But Carissa had a hunch that Chloe's battle was not over yet; she was, after all, radically different from any Two Victors who had come before her. It could be years before she was fully accepted by the whole district. But Carissa was prepared to fight tooth and nail against traditional Two sentiment for the little girl's acceptance. After all, Chloe deserved nothing less.

* * *

 _Chloe Antoni, Victor of the First Events_

* * *

Chloe was incredibly confused when she woke up. The last thing she remembered was getting on the Ferris wheel; now, she was back in her bed at the training center. Hestia must have brought her back home somehow.

That was very nice of Hestia.

Chloe stretched and got out of bed, finding herself still in the shiny overalls from the night before. When she went to the bathroom, she found her makeup all smudged and her ponytails askew, one way higher on her head than another. She knew to take her ponytails out, but she had no idea how to take her makeup off. So she went over to Myranda's room and knocked on the door. "Myranda?"

"Yes?"

"Can you help me take off my makeup? I don't know how to do that."

Myranda, only in a towel and hair sopping wet, opened the door. "Come here." She led Chloe into the bathroom, then took a towel, put something on it, and rubbed it all over Chloe's face. "There you go. All off."

"Thank you."

"Can you do my hair too?"

"Maybe after I get dressed."

"All right," Chloe shrugged, going back over to her room. But before she could do anything with her hair, or get changed, her escort, Boebette, knocked on the door. "Chloe! Myranda! We gotta go. Trains begin to leave in ten minutes."

"But I didn't eat breakfast yet!" exclaimed both girls.

"We can get food later. Right now, you need to get dressed and get downstairs."

"Can you tackle Chloe's hair?" asked Myranda. "Or Arabelle or someone?"

"Got it. Chloe, you go run and get dressed. We have to get moving."

Obediently, Chloe went back to her room, where she changed into the outfit laid out for her: a pink dress, a nice white coat with pink accents, thick white tights, and white Mary Janes. Chloe smiled, realizing the color scheme of the outfit. She took her token, Minnie's pink barrette, and brought it into the common area, where Arabelle was waiting to do her hair.

"Do you want anything special, Chloe?"

"I just want to wear this barrette."

"I can do that." Arabelle softly brushed through Chloe's hair, then pulled a few pieces of her hair from either side of her head and clipped them up in the barrette. "There you go."

"How are you so good at this?"

"I've had long hair for a long time."

"I barely even know how to brush my hair."

"You'll learn."

"Come on everyone! We have to go!" yelled Boebette. Swiftly, Chloe went back to her room to look at it one more time and say goodbye, then followed Boebette to the train station. Once they got there, Chloe ran straight to Winslet, to make sure that she could say goodbye.

"Hi Chloe."

"Hi Wins."

"I'm going home now."

"I know. Me too."

Wins looked Chloe in the eye, then gave her girlfriend the biggest hug she'd ever given in her life. "I'm gonna miss you a lot."

"I'm gonna miss you too. Will you write to me?"

"Yeah, of course. Will you write to me?"

"If you write me first." The two hugged again.

"Come on, Chloe!" called Boebette. "We have to go."

"One more hug!"

"Fine. One more hug and then we're going."

Chloe looked at Wins, tearing up. "Maybe I can visit?"

"Maybe. I'm gonna miss you. I love you."

"I love you too." Boebette practically had to drag Chloe to the District Two train; the little girl didn't take her teary eyes off of Wins until the doors of the train were shut in front of her.

As the train began to move towards District Two, carrying not just Chloe and Myranda but also all of Two's Victors, Chloe suddenly realized what was going to happen when she got home: she would have to face her parents.

Like magic, all of the confidence she'd had the night before vanished. She was suddenly incredibly nervous to face her parents. On the one hand, she wasn't particularly looking forward to seeing her parents again. After all, they had done nothing but reject who she was, and force her to do things to earn her identity. That wasn't an appropriate way to treat anyone, much less their own child. But, something deep in Chloe still wanted to make her parents accept her, for them to be proud of her, to love her. And now, she had the chance to do that! It was as if she was being pulled in two different directions; her head was scared to see her parents because she knew the damage that they had done to her, but her heart was afraid that she still hadn't made them proud.

Plus, it would be pretty lonely living alone in Victors' Village.

Before Chloe could get too deep into crippling internal debate, she heard a knock at the door. "Come in!" she called, expecting it to be someone like Arabelle or Boebettee. But the last thing she expected was to see Hestia at the door. "Hi Hestia!"

"Hi there, Chloe. Can I come in?"

"Of course!" There was something about Hestia that was naturally warm and nurturing; Chloe intrinsically trusted the older girl. She scooched over on her bed to allow Hestia to sit next to her.

"So, I have a question for you, Chloe. What are you planning to do about your house in Victors' Village?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, are you planning on having your parents live with you?"

"I was just thinking about that," Chloe admitted. "Like, on the one hand, they haven't ever been very nice to me. But on the other, I still want to make them proud of me."

"Well, there are so many other people who are proud of you, you know. Like Myranda and Arabelle and Boebette and me!"

"But… but I still want them to love me."

"Why?"

"Because… they're my parents. And I'm supposed to love them."

"But do they deserve your love?"

"Huh?"

"Your parents. Have they ever done anything to warrant being loved by you?"

"What does that mean?"

"Have they taken care of you? Have they supported you? Have they shown care?"

"No. They really just me feel like something was wrong with me, like I didn't have a right to be who I am."

"So you don't need to love them."

Chloe nodded. "I never thought about it that way. So it's OK for them to not live with me?"

"Absolutely."

"But then I'll live alone and be all lonely and stuff."

"Well, what if I came to live with you?"

Chloe looked up at Hestia. "Will you? Are you?"

"Yeah, I can. Would you like that!"

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" Chloe exclaimed, flinging herself excitedly into Hestia's arms. "Of course you can live with me. You can be like my mommy!"

"Yes, dear. I could be like your mommy."

"I bet you'd be a better mommy than my mommy… my mother was to me."

Refusing to let the sadness she felt at that statement show, Hestia gave Chloe another hug. "I hope I can be."

"Are you as old as my mother? How old are you?"

"I'm twenty-one."

"Wow. That's old."

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by Boebette's voice from the corridor, calling, "Five minutes to arrival!"

"Are you ready for this?" Hestia asked. "They're all waiting for you."

"Yeah, I think so."

Hestia led Chloe to the main doors of the train, then gave her a pat on the head. "I'll see you in a bit."

"Can you stay with me?"

"I'm not really supposed to."

"But I want you to."

Hestia looked down at the little girl, who was practically trembling. "I'll be right behind you."

As soon as the train stopped, the doors opened, and Chloe walked out to a polite-to-loud amount of applause. Many people were there, including the mayor, all looking happy to see their new young Victor come home. As confidently as she could, Chloe took a step out of the train towards the mayor, to shake their hand and receive congratulations. But as she scanned the crowd, she suddenly caught sight of her mother.

Her father didn't even come.

Hestia placed a comforting hand on Chloe's shoulder, encouraging the girl to continue towards the mayor, who officially presented Chloe to the district with some great fanfare. Chloe wasn't given the traditional gladiator helmet presented to Victors; instead, she was crowned with a golden olive wreath, which was considered fitting as Chloe had won in peace rather than through warring. (Plus, the gladiator helmet would have been way too big for her head.) Once the short ceremony had concluded, Chloe looked back at Hestia who gave her an encouraging nod. Chloe made herself as tall as she could to give herself a bit more confidence, then walked over to face her mother.

"Hi, Mom."

"Hello."

"I did it! I came back as a Victor."

"You did." Junia scanned Chloe up and down. "But I don't see a gladiator helmet on your head."

"What?"

"You didn't win the Games. You're not a true Victor."

"So… so you…"

"But, even though you have not earned it, I will honor your wishes. If you want me to call you Chloe, I guess you can be Chloe."

That was the last straw. "No."

"No? You don't want to be Chloe?"

"No, I mean you don't get to dictate my identity anymore. You have spent my entire life forcing me into things that you wanted me to do, without letting me do what I was interested in, all because of the things you didn't get to do. And you don't get to piggyback on my Victor's Village and Victory prize just because you birthed me. You can either truly accept me, not just call me Chloe but understand that I am Chloe, or you can leave."

Juna wasn't used to her child being so bold. She scanned Chloe up and down, then turned around and walked away.

That was the last time Chloe saw her mother.

The little girl didn't know whether to laugh or cry or both. On the one hand, it felt as though a weight had been lifted off of her chest. But on the other hand, she had now formally broken her bonds with her only family.

Someday very soon, she'd be grateful for her courage. But for now, she just needed another hug from Hestia. "Can we go yet?"

"One moment. I need to go talk to Dania Lidano really quickly."

"Who is Dania Lidano?"

"Myranda's trainer," fibbed Hestia. "Are you OK waiting here for a moment?"

"Sure." Chloe watched as Hestia went over to Dania. After Hestia introduced herself, Dania pulled her aside, away from the crowd.

Suddenly, she felt a tap on her shoulder. "Hi, Chloe."

Chloe turned around to find Carissa, the latest Quell Victor, standing next to her. "Oh. Hi!" Chloe wasn't used to someone this important talking to her.

"I wanted to congratulate you personally on winning the Events! It's really something to be proud of."

"Oh. Thank you!"

"I know you're in good hands with Hestia, but if you need anything from someone else, I live pretty close. OK?"

"All right. Thank you!"

"I have to go now. But I'm excited to get to know you better and be your friend!"

"Thank you."

Chloe smiled. Carissa seemed so nice and kind. She would be an awesome friend to have.

"All right, Chloe," said Hestia, coming up behind the young girl. "Are you ready to walk over to Victors' Village for the first time?"

Chloe took a deep breath. "Yeah. I'm ready to go home."

* * *

 **Well, after a year and four months, this is the final chapter of** _ **The First Inter-District, Inter-Disciplinary Events**_ **. I think this is a pretty good place to end things, don't you? I did toy with adding another epilogue, or more of this chapter, but something about where this ended just… felt right.**

 **I can't finish this story without thanking all of my submitters, who sent me the incredible characters that made this story possible, and of course a huge thank you to my spoiler buddy/planning helper/proofreader Lauren (TheEngineeringGames), without whom this story would not have happened nearly as quickly as it did. And of course, thank you to all of you! I'm so grateful that you've all read and enjoyed the story, and I hope you all submit to the sequel, IDIDE2! I posted an updated prologue after finishing this story, so go check it out!**

 **I'm going to leave you with one last question: Why would Hestia need to go talk to Dania Lidano?**

 **Yours,**

 **Goldie031**


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